


Collision

by Anabe23



Category: Dark Reylo - Fandom, Reylo - Fandom, Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, Star Wars: Battlefront (Video Games), Star Wars: The Rise of Kylo Ren (Comics), The Rise of Skywalker
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-24
Updated: 2020-07-13
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:14:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 17
Words: 45,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22881589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anabe23/pseuds/Anabe23
Summary: Ben and Rey are both powerful users of the force. Trained by two masters of the dark side of the force,  in oposites sides od the galaxy, their paths are destined to cross and they do when they're both asigned with the task of finding Luke Skywalker.What will happen when they face each other?There's always been visions, and knowledge og each other deep in their minds...Who's will is stronger and who's to rule the galaxy?Kind of a dark reylo turn on this one and I know you'll like the tension.
Relationships: Kylo Ren/Rey, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 3
Kudos: 19





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, I don't know if I'm getting any details wrong about their ages and stuff, but also, since this is a fanfic and I'm tryin to follow the data as much as posible I will make changes too. So, please be respectful if you know I wrote something wrong and enjoy the story.

The fisrt chapter is soon going to be posted, I hope you like it.


	2. 0

"I've been screaming for years and no one has ever heard me."  
― Tahereh Mafi

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away a young girl and a teen boy sat in front of their masters.

"Azam" her grandfather called her. It didn't matter that she had been called that for three years, Rey would never forget her real name.

"Yes, master?" Rey bowed her head, standing close to him.

Her voice reverberated through the stone, like it always did, and even more today that the place was almost empty.

The ocasional lightnings allowed her to look at her grandfather, since there were no other lights and he could not move around.

"Have you completed your course?" he asked. He knew the answer was yes, Azam would never dare to cross him, but still he wondered.

"I have, master."

"How did you do?" He crossed his arms, judging Rey up and down. Searching for any clues that she was lying.

"I tripped once, but I was able to keep my balance for the rest of the course" Rey crossed her hands behind her back and stood with her legs a little open, ready to stand tall in case that she was punished.

"In the beggining or the end?" Rey swallowed.

"The begging" She remembered to be strong, always strong. It was important to be like that and to never lie to her grandfather, as he had told her many times before.

He meditated about her answer.

"Very well, I'll allow it today, because it was on the beggining. And you'll never trip again Azam." he moved a little closer to her, very slowly and only thanks to all the wires that helped him stand up.

"No, master" she assured him.

"Give me back the saber and go to eat" he extended his palm. 

"Thanks, master" she gave him the lighstaber and marched to the little room she had in one of the corners of the big rocky structure.

March, stand tall, but don't run. As a child she had been encouraged to remain in control, at least when she wasn't training.

She was like a soldier, obedient.

Once in her room she found a tray with soup and another one with meat and glass of water.

She took her knife and lifted her matress a little bit, carving a line on the rock base.

Another one to her collection since she'd arrived here.

Right in the middle of everything she had also marked her real name, Rey.

"I am, we're still searching, master" Kylo said kneeling in front of Snoke's hologram.

He and the knights of Ren were still on their journey to find a good death for him.

They had accepted Ben's new name.

Kylo Ren.

As Snoke once said to him, it was his true name, which would show his true intentions and one day, when people said it they'll see his true self too.

"Very well, I'm glad to hear that and see that your emotions are coming out now. It's good Ben, let go."

"I will master, I work everyday on fighting with my anger" Kylo said.

"Let that passion give you strength and with that strength" he wanted Kylo to finish reciting the code.

"Gain power. Through power I gain victory. Through victory, my chains are broken. The force shall free me" He didn't miss a word.

"Good, my young friend. I'll keep watching over you" Snoke was gone after that but Ben could still feel his presence in the room.

He took a deep breath. During that inhale and exhale was the only moment he allowed himself to think of his past as a jedi student, then... it was forgoten.

He couldn't hesitate, not anymore.

He got out of his room and joined the knights of Ren.

Tonight they were hunting something bigger.

The boy and the girl, both fed with promises of a bright future kept going like they always did. Following their masters.

But there was someone in the shadows plotting for them to collide.

In time... in some years.


	3. I. Fear and blood

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (I played around with the ages because I wasn't sure how old Rey and Ben were, I just know for a fact that he is ten years older. Somewhere else I read that she was five when her parents left her on jakku and that Ben was 23 or 24 when he turned to the dark side so... in order forthings to work out I decided that... Rey is in this moment nine years old, soon to be ten. Ben is twenty and has recently joined Snoke, the other details will be told in the story but about their ages I think this is all. Thanks)

(I played around with the ages because I wasn't sure how old Rey and Ben were, I just know for a fact that he is ten years older. Somewhere else I read that she was five when her parents left her on jakku and that Ben was 23 or 24 when he turned to the dark side so... in order forthings to work out I decided that... Rey is in this moment nine years old, soon to be ten. Ben is twenty and has recently joined Snoke, the other details will be told in the story but about their ages I think this is all. Thanks)

Exegol

Rey stood up, her grandfather had lifted her in the air and let her fall to the ground.

"I'm sorry" she said, having trouble breathing and clutching her body as she stood up, tall, and looked her master.

"Don't say you're sorry, make it right!" he roared. This time some of the sith eternals were watching and clapped when Palpatine screamed.

Rey's eyes were burning but she couldn't allow herself to cry.

"Azam, Azam, Azam" they chanted her name, again and again, making her more angry.

She concentrated once again, when she closed her eyes she felt a tear rolling down her cheek, and it raged her to be so weak. She extender her hand and with all of her anger and throbbing pain in her head she felt the big rock.

It's surface, it's weight and her force pulling it up.

She started sweating from the effort and panicked when a lightning flashed in front of her eyes, that last shot of fear was what helped her lift the rock and throw it away.

"Good, good!" Palpatine said.

"Silence! Azam, you've done well today. You can leave but you're to come back in two hours for your next task, understood?" Her grandfather lowered to look her straight in the eye.

He could see her sweat, even blood on her lips, maybe from when he smashed against the floor or because she had bit her lips during her concentration. He smiled. He felt hate, fear, rage, she was tired, all of this emotions coming from her.

His grandaugther would be the greatest Sith of all times.

"Yes, master" she responded.

Rey tried to ignore the shivers going up and down her spine as she walked to her room again. More like her own little cave on this horrible planet, and lit up a fire to warm her up.

At least here she knew there was no one else watching her.

She examined herself, today's bruises and was glad that at least this time she hadn't broken anything. She noticed that some blood had dripped on her shirt and then felt the sting on her lips. 

She got a glass of water and quickly cleaned her open lip, she would have to remember not to touch it for at least a week until it healed.

She sat on the floor and closed her eyes for a second.

"Come on!" she heard someone say. It was a man's voice she had never heard around here. She looked around her room with fear, only to find nothing.

Maybe she was imagining things again. It sometimes happened to her, those ecoes of things that weren't happening there, or flashes of images of somewhere far away... she wondered if she was crazy.

Elsewhere

"Kylo, run faster" Snoke's voice filled all the spaces.

He ran as fast as he could, leaving behind shadows of his past.

"Faster!" Snoke shouted and the ground beneath his feet shattered a little.

Kylo's feet hurt and he was drenched in sweat, he wasn't sure how long had he ran for but it felt like hours.

This wasn't a punishment, Snoke had told him earlier, this was something he had to do because he wanted him to be better.

To overcome his pain and use it as a strength.

"Can I rest... for a moment?" Kylo asked through gritted teeth.

"No, you must keep running" 

But he felt like he couldn't, he'd breath the wrong way and now he coughed, unable to breath right and he had slowed down a little.

"Come on, don't be useless.!" 

He composed himslf as he could and clenched his fists forcing himself to go faster and further.

"It was good, better than last week" Snoke said when he was finally allowed to stop.

Kylo could varely stand up.

"I'm glad, master." Kylo said, collapsing and trying to hide it by adopting a respectful stance. One knee on the floor and the other bent.

"Maybe one day you'll have proper condition. Now, move. Get yourself something to eat and finish your tasks before tomorrow" Snoke order.

The sudden wrath Kylo had received from his master, former friend, was now gone.

He fell to his knees when Snoke was gone and allowed himself to let out his pain.

His feet were covered in blisters, some had exloded, stinging even more.

He felt like a failure, never able to reach his true potential, never able to please his master.

It wasn't the first time he felt like this, and it grew even more and more everyday.

In the beginning he had found trust in Snoke, a hope for a master who wouldn't turn his back on him and actually believed in him... but then, as his training started Snoke became more and more severe with him.

And in a sick way Kylo only wanted to gain his approval.

He retired to finish his tasks and after a very long and exhausting day he was allowed to go to sleep.

He hated sleeping. At least for the past years... after the incident at Luke Skywalker's academy he almost always had the same dream.

Luke would come at night, to his room and try to kill him in his sleep with his lightsaber, then he would wake up covered in sweat and struggle to fall back asleep again.

He wanted to go back with the knights of Ren because they didn't sleep much, or even if they did they all had weird sleeping times and their noises would distract him enough to sleep well.

He read until he fall asleep and to his surprise he dreamed of a girl, again.

He had never been able to see her face, only hear her talk, or see her sitting somewhere, dark. Always dark and cold.

This time he saw her with a knife on her hand as she did something... he couldn't walk closer but after a moment he understood that the girl was carving something with the knife.

This dream quickly changed into a memory of him hurting Henix and he woke up startled.

"Like always" he mumbled, closing his eyes again and trying to calm down.

"Azam, finish writing it and then I'll tell you the surprise" His master instructed.

This was one of the lessons that Rey hated the most. The sith language had never been easy for her. At least now she had a decent writing but still... there were words that confused her.

"Do you want me to read it?" she stood up and showed her grandfather her notebook, she was proud.

"Go ahead" 

Rey cleared her throath thearically and began.

"I Azam, follow the Sith code, which says: Peace is a lie, there is only passion. Through passion I gain strength. Through strength I gain power.Through power I gain victory. Through victory my chains are broken, the force shall free me." she finished reading as Palpatine though about his young apprentice.

"Good"

"Graandfather... what is peace?" Rey asked after a moment.

"You don't have to wonder about such thing right now, Azam." he retorted.

He lowered himself a little to take her hand. 

Nothing. Just curiosity. It was good that this was as far as her mind was going. 

He liked how easy it was to read her young mind, her feelings.

"I have a surprise for you ,Azam" he then said.

"What is it?" Rey would've jump with excitement but the last time she did she was punished and since that day she had learned to keep her reactions at bay.

"Would you like your own lightsaber?" Palpatine asked, making Rey see a quick vision of herself wilding a bright red lightsaber.

"Yes, yes. Of course, only if you think I'm ready" she added. She had trained with a quarterstaff before and his master always reminded her that one day she'll earn her lightsaber.

"You may be, but first. I want you to do one simple thing" the cables holding him up directed him backwards.

(So... what's coming it's definately child abuse, psychological abuse. In case you are triggered by this in any way I want to warn you. I feel terrible putting Rey through this, even Ben will have to face some abuse himself but... the story needs it. I don't think it's okay in any level, I just think it gives them a background for how I want their minds to be at and the story to evolve. That's all, keep reading if you want.)

Rey waited patiently for her master to give her instructions. Her hands wanted to tangle on her long hair, which was now loose and would help her calm down a little but she knew she couldn't.

"Come here" he called.

She didn't hesitate.

"Open your palms and extend them"

She did and suddenly she felt something, a weight, little legs pressing against her palm.

Palpatine placed his hands over hers and closed them, leaving whatever he had put in her hands trapped inside.

Only then she started to feel panick.

"Kill it" he declared.

"What... why?" Rey identified the creature as one of the rats that roamed around the planet.

"Kill. It" Palpatine's hands started to put pressure on hers, closing more around the rat.

"Wait... wait, pleas-"

"Are you trying to defy me?!" he questioned. A lightning revealed his raised eyebrow and empty eyes.

She shivered.

"No, master. But... master, is this ne-"

His hands went to her wrists and made pressure, faint lightnings started to appear on the tip of his fingers too. She started crying without being able to stop it.

"Azam!" she wanted to shout that her name wasn't even that.

"Please... please" she couldn't let the rat go but she couldn't crush it either.

"Are you afraid?" he questioned.

"Yes!"

"Do you feel bad?" 

"Yes!" her eyes were closed as she cried, the pressure on her wrists was hurting her and the animal on her hands had started scratching her trying to get away, hurting her too.

"Why? therer's nothing to feel bad about Azam. Do it!" his hands went back to hers.

"Wait! wait, please" Azam was breathing heavy now.

"It's you or this animal!" he shouted. The animal was now bitting Rey's skin.

She wasn't sure that her grandfather would hurt her... but she couldn't trust it either.

"Come on!" he shouted again and again to do it.

"I- I can't" she cried and only opened her eyes when she felt a slap across her face.

"You must be angry, you must hate me in this moment, and that hate is exactly what makes you strong. Stop caring about it! This stupid creatures life has nothing to do with you, it doesn't affect you. Your power lies upon using this fear and hate to do what I've asked of you." His voice was softer.

Rey thought about it, she closed her eyes and tried to clasp her hands together. The animal's cries intensified and a smile grew on Palpatine's face.

In the end... the girl was not ready to do it.

She threw the animal away, it hit the floor pretty hard, but she hadn't put enough strength to kill it and it started running away the moment it hit the ground, only to be burn in a second by Palpatine's lightning.

"Stupid girl" he spat at Rey.

"You've dissapointed me, Azam" as he came close to her Rey started crying again.

"Shut up. You need to learn to be strong, and today you've been weak. If you keep caring like this, you're never gonna allow the force to give yo true power. Go! and I hope that you think about your actions, because sooner or later, you'll pass this test." he retired and then she ran to her room.

She cleaned her wounds and noticed the bruises on her wrists. Her reflection on the small bathroom mirror was even worst than she imagined.

Her cheek was crimson red and the wound on her lip had opened again. Then she looked at her hands, they had stopped bleeding but the scratch and bite marks would be there for a while.

Her eyes were red from the tears and her nose was irritated.

In another place of the galaxy Kylo Ren found himself staring at his hands, for no reason, and a chill went down his spine.

"Hurry up, boy" Snoke said noticing that Kylo had stopped walking.

"Yes, master" he kept walking and tried to shake off the sudden sadness that had came over him. It felt odd, out of place, not even like it came from him.

It distracted him the rest of the way to another place where Snoke was taking him to train.


	4. Broken

"Azam!" Palpatine's screams woke Rey up. She was confused at first, she had had the weirdest dream and then she realized that she wasn't on a forest, she was on Exegol.

She knew that even if she tried she shouldn't ignore her grandfather, so Rey quickly stood up, put on her shoes and ran out of her room.

"Master" she said bowing her head.

"What the hell were you thinking?" he asked showing her a weapon she was designing and had kept in secret on the other edge of the cave.

She swallowed hard. She knew that she was going to be punished... and that her invention was soon to be smashed.

"Come on boy! you're running late" One of the knights shouted at Ben.

He wasn't sure anymore if he prefered to be with them or with Snoke. 

He's always here anyways. He remembered. Snoke, his voice had been with him for years now. Long before his uncle tried to murder him.

"I'm coming" he quickly showered and changed to join the rest of them. Today they were going to collect jewerly.

Ren had a tendency to steal pretty things, and cause trouble on his way to get them.

Always following the teaching of The Ren, as he would say.

They landed far from downtown, in a city full of lights. The air was chill and the sky was grey, for some reason Ben felt like today wasn't going to be a bad day.

The knights each took their weapon, and Ben ignited his lightsaber. It was still blue, still a memory from his past and his jedi training.

It felt weird. Ben might be dressed as them, all in black and maybe he was now part of their circle but... some part of him was stubborn, not wanting to be there, wanting to change. To stop them.

He shook the idea off and walked close behind them.

Exegol

"While I can get my lightsaber I figured I could use that" Rey said lowering her head a little and lifting her eyes to look at Palpatine.

"Come here" he said. Her grandfather's voice had always scared her. It had never felt natural to her, the tone... the volume. How it never quivered.

She didn't want to get close.

She tried, she really did. But she had learned to fear him, so when she tried to move her feet they didn't answer her. Her mind and her body would not comply.

"I said. Come!" his voice got louder and right now there was mostly darkness, as the sound traveled through the cave it made Rey feel like Palpatine was everywhere.

Rich planet

"Kylo!" One of the knights passed him a grenade and he threw it away.

The place was almost completely destroyed, they had done a mess and they'd killed almost everyone. Somehow Ben had managed not to kill anyone withouth them noticing.

"Your last chance, my friend. Where are the money and the jewels?" Ren asked pointing with his saber at the last man alive on the floor.

"We don't have any. Yesterday we sold everything! I swear, I swear we did.!" The man screamed again and again.

Every now and then he also tried to negociate for his life.

Ben was starting to get hot in here, the fire will soon consume this place and he was sure that the man had nothing for them.

"Ren, he's not lying." he wispered to their Leader.

"And how do you know?" he couldn't see his face inside the mask, but he was sure that he had a mocking smile on.

"I know." he stated. He could feel it.

"Well, then. He's of no use." 

Before Ben could object Ren lowered his saber and mutilated the poor man to death. He turned around, he still couldn't understand why the knights liked so much to make such a mess all the time.

Once they were outside and heading to their ship one of the knights saw something moving and smiled.

"There's one left" he said coming back with a kid in his arms.

It was a boy no older than ten years old, he was kicking and screaming, trying to get away from the knight.

"Oh boy, it's a shame that we've already killed everyone. I'm afraid you don't have a chance to join us." Ren said walking closer to the kid.

The kid did what almost everyone did when they saw Ren so close, with his burned skin and splatters of blood from the killing. The kid was terryfied. 

His fear made the knights howl with anticipation, they loved it. It gave them strength.

"Ren" Ben took his arm before he ignited his lightsaber.

"Don't touch me Kylo" was his only warning. 

For some reason he felt brave and strong. They had already taken everything from this boy, and they wouldn't give him a quick death. Couldn't they for once spare him? 

He didn't want to see this boy suffer.

"Come on. We've done enough. He has nowhere else to go" He said letting him go but standing in front of the boy.

"Snoke must be wrong about you. Everyday I wonder if we shouldn't just kick you out" Ren said.

"Come on Kylo! move. Let him have some fun!" the other knights told him.

"Don't do it" he didn't move.

Exegol

Palpatine used the force to pull her towards him, dragging her through the stone and making her knees bleed.

She let out a cry of suprise.

"Don't you dare defy me. Ever. Again. Azam. " He took her head, pulling a little from her free hair.

She was about to cry, until she felt warmth. That weird connection she sometimes felt and this time it gave her strength.

She felt and impulse to fight back for once.

"I only wanted to train on my own, master" Rey firmly said.

Palptine raised a brow, surprised that she had chose to remain calm and strong when he had sensed fear coming from her seconds ago.

"All that you have, all that you are and will ever be is because of me child. Don't get confused" he said the words slowly so she could hear them perfectly.

"One day I'm growing up!" Rey took his hands out of her hair and took a few steps back.

"Azam!" his eyes lit up as she breath heavily, swallowing her fear.

"That's not my name!" She found her staff lying on the floor near her and took it, adopting a defensive position.

"Get it!" Palpatine ordered his guards. Only two were requiered to take Rey's staff away and make her kneal.

"How dare you act like this? Azam. Because that is your name, Azam. It's very impressive to see that you want to fight back... but learn that there are levels and you are still in the lowest one my child. You said you're growing up, and of course you will. But you'll still be here" The machine holding him up lowered him and moved him closer to Rey.

The guard passed him the staff and Palpatine broke it in pieces right before her eyes.

"You want a weapon? pass the test and earn your lightsaber. You need to learn some respect Azam. You've never acted like this before."

"Take her to her room and don't let her out in two days" he ordered and the guards dragged her away.

She was crying, silently but she allowed herself to do it now. She hated that still there was a part of her burning with bravery but she couldn't understand why. There was nothing in this moment making her feel like that and on top of everything she was now going to be kept locked away. 

She had only been locked once since she came to exegol.

Rich planet

"Kylo, if you don't move now I'm kicking you out and I won't give Snoke the chance to tell me if he even wants to save your life. We're all taking it" Ren said as a last warning.

Ben hesitated, he didn't want to let Snoke down. His true master, the one to actually show him the right path.

"Move!" Ren shouted and pushed him away. Of course Ben could have fought again, do something. But he felt devastated and with shame he turned his face not to see how the boy was killed.

Later on the ship he was alone in his room. Snoke had heard and felt his conflict earlier and it took a long time for Kylo to try and explain why he had done what he had done.

Snoke wasn't happy at all and warned him that if the knights kicked him out then he'll had to go back to the planet and if he failed at least one of Snoke's test then he'll get rid of him.

"Fuck this..." Ben sat on the floor, resting his head against the wall and closed his eyes.

For a second the wall behind him was no longer metal, but stone, and beside him a little girl sat in the same position with a few dry tears on her face.

He jolted up, looking around his room for the girl and touching the wall with his hands. It was cold and flat again.

Maybe he was imagining things because he was tired. 

He got outside and got one of the knights to train combat with him. He wouldn't sleep until he collapsed from exhaustion.

Exegol

Rey had managed to survive her two days locked without problem. At first she had been bored, she got tired of being in a small place, and she had had to keep herself from eating all her food left on the first day.

She had exercised a lot, she didn't have books or papers. Only one about the Sith language but there were still things she couldn't read or understand.

She dreamed about a boy on he first day and found herself screaming the next day, out of nowhere.

She didn't miss the sun or light since Exegol was never bright anyways, and when a guard finally came to take her she didn't even think that her punishent was over.

But now, she was back in the hole.

For some reason she had lashed out again yesterday and it earned her a week long punish.

She had ran out of food and she had only a bucket of water left. She had no energy to exercise or anything, she felt dizzy and tired.

For a second she even allowed herself to imagine that if she died she could reunite with her parents.

"Hey" a voice said to her, causing her eyes to open.

"Who is it?" she was weak but adopted a defensive position anyways.

"Hey" the voice said again. She turned to her left.

She would've screamed, if she hadn't seen him before. But she had. Somehow she knew him.

"What is this?" she asked. The place where the boy was should be another wall of the cave, filled with rocks, not with some random boy watching her.

It's her. Ben realized, the girl he constantly saw in his dreams.

"I don't know" he admited.

None of them moved.

In their minds they both thouht they were probably dreaming.

"Why were you crying?" Ben asked.

"What?" Rey touched her face to find it dry. She was more mad than sad now that she was on her room locked again.

"The other day... why were you crying?"

Rey was confused with his words until she remembered her punishment before and how she had rested, tired and sad against the wall. She had felt something. Someone watching her, but she hadn't mind.

"I wasn't" she proudly answered sitting more straight.

To her surprise the boy laughed a little.

"Who ar-" before she could finish her question the image of the boy went away and the rock wall was back in place. She crawled on her bed to get to the wall and epxlored it with her hands. Maybe there was something there... a handle... a button. Something.

"I must be dreaming" she sighed and went back to bed.

Knights of Ren ship

"Who are you?" Ben whispered resting his forehead on the wall.

If this was some trick by Snoke he couldn't understand what the teaching was upposed to be.

And it couldn't just be a dream... he had felt her , he had seen her more than once in his life and today he had talked to her.

She wasn't a force ghost either so... who was she?

Many times Ben had wondered about asking Snoke, but it never felt right.

So he never mentioned it.

Exegol

"The force shall free me" Rey finished reciting for her grandfather.

"Very good Azam" he praised her.

Her punishment finished yesterday and she didn't have a good time at all. She never wanted to be punished like that again.

"Now, you have to complete the course" Palpatine said.

"Master I-" Rey stopped... she could get in trouble, but she also wanted to say that she was exahusted. She hadn't eaten anything but water for four days and her body ached, not to mention that she still felt lightheaded.

"What Azam?" his voice scared her.

"Nothing. I'll do my best, master." She bowed.

As it turns out she couldn't do her best at all. She collapsed in the middle of the course, tired of running and avoiding blasts, also Palpaptine had added new things that she had to move with the force, so it was worse for her.

"You may rest child. You've done well" she remembered his voice saying.

I did well? how could she have done well if she had fainted? she thought.

Palpatine could only admire his throne as Azam slept.

He was breaking her, making progress. Of course it wasn't easy to lose time with stupid punishments, but the child was still a child and soon... he would've broken her entirely, shaping her to be the perfect apprentice.

She had potential, everyday he felt her power and hate growing. 

But he wasn't scared. In fact, he wanted her to despise him even more, her hatred for him and her fear should be as strong as her power and he wouldn't rest until he controlled her.

Today's test had been proof that things were going as he wanted. She didn't cross him and instead went through the course until she collapsed.

Well done, Azam. Well done.

Knights of Ren ship

Ben could feel Voe and Tai following him. They wouldn't stop. Not until they got an answer from him about what happened at the temple.

But Ben broke more and more everyday, changed and hated his jedi past more.

He didn't tell the knights that someone was following them, because he knew that when the time was right he would have to face them.

And probably finish them.

He hadn't dreamed about the girl from the cave in a month now, but somehow he was sure that sometimes he could feel her.

Most of the times her emotions pulled him more to the dark side, and he couldn't understand why.

Anyways... maybe I'm imagining it. He WAS training on the dark side, so it shouldn't be weird that he felt a pull towards it.

I need to concentrate. He remembered and brought back his attention to the attack plan Ren was describing.


	5. Kylo Ren

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "The Ren doesn't stop to worry about what it's burning or the right or wrong of it, or the goals it might achieve. The Ren just is. It lives, and it consumes, and it doesn't apologize. It is its nature and nothing else."―Ren, on the code of the Knights of Ren.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, sorry for not uploading in so long but things are a bit crazy. How are you all? Stay safe.Also the beggining part of this chapter is mainly taken from the rise of Kylo Ren comic, but the rest I made up.I hope you like it. Soon Kylo and Azam will be crossing paths and I can only say that they're explosive.

Mid Rim.The Minemoon of Mimbam.

Ben saw in horror how once again the knights annihilated the habitants of the planet whe they got what they wanted.  
And even worst, this time he had helped them. Ben had read the mind of one of them to know where the artifact that Ren was looking for was, he'd done it hoping that this way he'd spare him the torture, only to find that he had given the knights more freedom to kill.  
Snokes voice reminded Ben that the knights wouldn't stop at anything and they only cared about taking what they wanted. Something that Ben should learn.  
The artifact was supposed to be three levels down, and each level they found more people who soon became puddles of blood.  
And suddenly... Ben looked up, to find the owners of the force he was feeling.  
"Ben!" Tai called for him.  
"Who are they?" Ren asked with disgust.  
A disgust that soon was reflected on Ben's face as he got his lightsaber out.  
"The past" he answered. He knew this moment would come, he had felt them more near and near everyday and still... he wasn't ready for this.  
It still hurt.  
As Voe went and fought the knights to try and save the people Ben and Tai were now facing each other.  
None of them wanted to do it, but their actions had led them to this moment.  
"You don't have to do this Ben, you don't have to turn your back to the light!" Tai said as they fought. He meant it, he wanted for his words to mean something to Ben, because he was his friend, because they had cared for each other.  
And for that reason Ben wanted him to shut up.  
"I'm not who you think I am. It's too late Tai, this is my path." Ben circled him making sre he heards his words.  
"Ben! That's not true. You can do it, you cna turn back. Every path goes in two directions!" Tai insisted.

Exegol  
"Azam, how's your pet doing?" Palpatine asked as Azam translated some Sith words.  
"It's okay. It may grow a little since he can eat all day" Rey replied with a big smile on her face.  
Her grandfather had offered her a mouse as a pet, and as a reward for being such a good kid in the past month. At first, when he offered it to her she tought that he'll order her to kill it like last time but, not now.  
And at the moment it was in Rey's room.  
"Very good. Take good care of it Azam."  
"Yes, master."   
Soon she was done with her page of new words translated and stood up to go and show his grandfather.  
"You're improving. Maybe I'll lend you some of the old books and you'll learn about new powers." He said. His eyes were empty but for the first time Rey wasn't scared of him.  
"Thank you, master." she bowed. Rey couldn't stop grining, lately she had been very happy, and she prefered when her grandfather was in such a good mood and treating her well.She didn't want to fail him ever again.  
She wanted to live in this peace forever.  
"Would you like to hear a story about my master?" Palpatine asked, knowing that the child wouldn't refuse.  
"Yes, please! I'll be honored to know more about your training, master".  
She sat on the floor near the feet of her grandfather and disimulated her disconfort when they fabric of her pants brushed against the scab on her knees.

Mid Rim.  
Ben and Tai continued fighting each other, and if it wasn't for the rest of the people there and the situation this would be like one of their old saber trainings.  
They weren't trying to hurt each other but block their attacks.  
"Wheter is Skywalker or Snoke! None of them see me as a person. I'm just a legacy, a set of expectations!" Ben shouted charging against Tai.  
"Ben, there's always hope. You can start from wherever you are. No path is forever" Tai tried reasoning with him was they fought and moved to a different place.  
Ben got more and more angry with each of his words. For him it was easy to say, easy to think that things would be right and that he had a choice, easy to think that he could go back home and things would be okay. But none of them would.  
Nothing was right.  
Ben managed to disarm Tai and pointed his saber at him as Tai collapsed to his knees.  
"Kill me if you have to, or not... Be the man I know you are. Be-" Ben was amused that his friend was still trying to turn him, but suddenly Tai's head turned and Ben heard his neck crack.  
The only capable of doing this could be Ren.  
"You killed Tai" he confroted him.Not only for Tai but because he had been saving up all his frustration and anger at how ruthless Ren had been with the killings. And killing his only friend... it was over.  
"Of course I did. Snoke was wrong about you. You're fighting this every step of the way" Ren closed his hand in a fist and held his lightsaber tighter with the other.  
Ren had been his motivation at first, to join the knights, to live freely, to learn. An since he joined them he had only felt a push more and more.  
"You think so?" Ben asked, slowly preparing to take Tai's fallen lightsaber.  
"You don't want to live in the shadow" he declared.  
"It's true... because I AM the shadow" Ben said and rushed to attack him as he now held two lightsabers.

Ren teased him about his fighting, about his moves and being a kid not knowing anything at all.  
Their feelings caused disturbance in the force, so strong that Rey and Palpatine could feel it all the way in Exegol.  
Palpatine was still telling Rey about the tragedy of Darth Plagueis but in his mind he knew what was coming.

Now you will be who you are. Who you were always meant to be. Palpatine thought about Ben.  
Ben was slowly gaining strength and winning the fight, and respectively Palpatine and Snoke silently cheared for him to do it.  
To kill Ren, to forget about his old life, to forget about the jedi. They could almost taste the blood, and Ben was blinded by his rage.  
He had almost shifted.  
And in that moment Leia sensed him, she knew the exact moment her son had finally turned to the dark side, leaving her, leaving his true self. And Rey... she felt it too. She didn't say anything as her grandfather continued his story.  
"In the end... he could not save himself from death, despite being able to save others" Rey was sure that the chills running down her spine were not because of the sad story she heard, but from something else.  
Exegol had always been cold, distant... death in some way but now, in that moment, Rey felt a weird pull, a torrent of freezing cold air and wondered what it was about.

"I should have realized earlier what you were asking me to do, Ren." Ben said hitting again and again Ren's lightsaber.  
"Here's your good death!" He declared as he pierced his chest with the lightsaber.

Exegol  
"Do you know how to do it master? Bring people back from the death?" Rey asked trying to distract herself.  
Palpatine snickered.  
"Maybe... there are lots of things you still hve to learn about the dark side of the force, Azam. For today, this is all." he declared.  
If only the child knew exactly who he was, and how he had died.  
"Thank you, master." Rey bowed and walked away. Once she was sure that no one could see her she rushed to her room and took deep breaths. She didn't feel well.

Mid Rim.  
The people who had witnessed the fight were confused as Ben took Ren's old lightsaber and walked towards Voe.  
"Ben... Ben don't do it." But he was no longer Ben, nor he wanted to be.   
He killed her without sparing a thought.  
He embraced his new self as the knights kneeled around him. His knights. He was their new leader.

Exegol  
For some reason Rey started crying, she took anything she could find to hit other things in her room, destroy it all.  
A burning rage consumed her, and her feelings turned dark. She felt as if the good in her was being consumed, the only happy memories left in her mind seemes to be evaporating.  
"Stop! stop this!" she shoted at the air, stricking her palms againt a wall, and hitting them against it.   
She did it with such strength that she had bruised her fists and her skin had opened but she didn't care.  
What is happening to me? She thought.  
She grabbed her head and through her tears she tried focusing on breathing.  
Having her eyes closed was always dangerous as she often had visions, and this time, was the same.  
She saw a red lightsaber, burning with the anger of it's user and she heard lots of screams.  
She fell to the ground.  
"Stop it. Stop it. Stop it!" she screamed for the last time, releazing all her anger until all she had left were the tears.  
Because she felt as if a part from her had been lost forever.  
Suddenly she felt more determined, less scared. She cared less, for herself and for others.  
If Palpatine could see her he'll be proud, the dark side of the force had consumed her for a moment and even her eyes changed. But with an exhale... it was lost.

Night Buzzard. (Name of the knights of Ren ship)  
Kylo had ordered the knights to resume their usual positions and that he'll be at the workshop and shouldn't be bothered until they reached their new destination.  
He impatiently opened his old lightsaber. The time had come for him to get the proper saber and turn his crystal red.  
His grandfather had told him how to do it. He was one of the most recent voices that he'd heard in his mind.  
And today as he drew the crystal out he explained him what he must do to make the crystal bleed.  
He taught the crystal his pain, his anger, and closed his eyes to concentrate even more.As he did the faces of his parents, his uncle, Chewie, Tai... all of them, people from his past, flashed before him.  
His strength made red lightinings surround everything for a minute and then he opened his palm, now filled with blood and revealing a crimson red crystal.  
He out it in his saber to find out that he'll had to make some adjustments to it, so the laser could come out properly.  
Then he admired his new weapon, a crossguard lightsaber, burning as much as he was burning inside.

Exegol  
Rey felt more calm now, as the time to sleep came by and she had fed her pet.  
She doodled on some pages that her grandfather had allowed her to keep and then tried going to sleep but she couldn't.  
When she gave up trying to fall asleep she snook out of her room, she had done it some times before and had never got in trouble for it.  
She rolled up her pijama pants a little so they wouldn't get dirty with the dust and walked throught the space she had found led to one of the edges of the structure without having to walk past her grandfather.  
Once she reached the edge she sat down, she allowed her feet to hand from the edge and realized, a little too late, that her clothes would get dirty anyways.  
She looked at the storm, her body vibrated with the many lightnings that fell every now and then and was grateful that at least it wasn't raining.  
As always the sky was filled with clouds and there was almost no light at all. Rey closed her eyes for a second remembering the sun from Jakku. She wondered if any day she'll feel the sun again.  
"I'm sorry" she mumbled out of nowhere.  
She wasn't sure what she was sorry about... but she knew that she meant it.  
What was happening to her? sometimes her mood swings confused her, or she felt straight up confused and lost... but today.  
The piece that was broken, confused, had also gone.  
It acked in her chest and wouldn't let her breath properly.  
To distract herself again she thought about the story her grandfather had told her.  
Death... tragedy.  
It sure was a tragedy to not be able to help yourself, but coming back to life... Rey wasn't sure that that was something natural or right to do.

A month had passed since that day that had left her being such a mess, and whatever she lost, it made her stronger.  
Her grandfather congratulated her everyday on how good she was becoming, he hadn't hit her in a while now, the sith language she hated so much was now suddenly interesting and she found that she was actually good at it.  
She had even been allowed to construct her staff again.

"Azam. There's only one more thing that you have to do before you get your lightsaber." Her grandfather let her know as she stood in front of him.  
"Yes, master." Palpatine smiled. It wasn't a kind nor warm smile, but the smile of someone who gets what they've been asking for.  
Palpatine was not only happy that his apprentice was doing so well but because Kylo Ren had now turned to the dark side and his journy with the knights was only proving his potential.  
"If you do this... you'll be the youngest sith to earn it's lightsaber" Azam wasn't a Sith yet but... that was the goal anyway.  
Palpatine only had to push her a little bit, one more thing was missing. He already had her blind devotion but... had she made up her mind.  
"I'll be very honored master" she kneeled.  
"Azam, go get your pet". Palpatine said.  
We'll see what she's made of.


	6. The dark side

Rey swalowed hard.

She kept her eyes down for a moment as she took in his words, deep inside, she knew what was going to happen.

"Master..." she whispered.

"Come on, everyone's here for you Azam, but they can't wait for long" Palpatine hurried her.

Everyone was there... but they were there almost everyday. Sitting and hiding in the shadows, watching her every move and listening to Palpatine's words.

Like those weren't enough eyes watching her, the millions of statues of Palpatine around Exegol seemed to follow Rey anywhere she went.

She walked fast to her room and with surprise she noticed that she wasn't as scared of doing this as the las time her grandfather had ordered her to do it.

She found her mouse eating something in the corner of the room and went to pick it up.

She took quick breaths until she got back to kneel in front of her master.

"Azam, I think you know what you have to do." Palpatine's voice was loud and clear.

"I..."

"Don't you want your lightsaber?" Palpatine forced her to stand up and look at him, in the background the Sith Eternals began chanting her name. Her new name, the sith one.

"Yes, but master, can't I kill any other mouse? He's my pet, my friend." Rey's childish, big and innocent eyes were shining.

"Do you love it? Have you come to care for it?" he wondered.

And Rey foolisly thought that he'll understand.

"Yes."

"Kill it then." He said. He said it like he had ordered her to go and finish her course, like it was nothing. Like it was normal.

"Master... please"

"You're doing this for love Azam. If you don't kill it, I'll do it." He pulled her close and pur his hands over hers just like last time. 

And like last time the mouse was scratching her palms hoping to find a way out. What was different this time was that Rey wasn't crying, altered yes. But not crying, and Palpatine noticed it.

He smiled.

"Do it!"

Rey opened her mouth but nothing came out, she wanted so much to let the mouse go, to not hear it cry again...

"Master..." He put pressure on her hands and she felt the little animal start compresing in her hands.

"I can't, I can't. I'm sorry I can't!" She cried out closing her eyes not wanting to feel that.

"What do you feel Azam? Do you feel it's fear?"

"Yes!" She was sweating from the effort she was doing not to crush the animal in her hands.

"Tell me"

"I'm scared and I don't want to do it!" She screamed.

She just wanted him to let go, punish her, hit her, whatever. Whatever that'll make this stop.

"Why don't you?"

"Because I love it! I don't want to kill it, nor I want you to kill it" 

"Good, good. Feel it, feel everything. Find your fear in the force, find strenght in your fear, in your love, find compassion. When you find it, just do it!"

"Please..." 

"Azam!" Palpatine was losing his temper, he thought she was ready.

She screamed and gave up some of her force, once again trapping the animal. She tried to make sense of her grandfathers words, but they just wouldn't. Why would she kill something she loved?

Two sides of her were battling inside, her internal fight was tiring her more than the act of fighting back.

On the last moment she yanked her hands away from Palpatine and threw the mouse away, hoping that it will run and hide, but her head was trobbing.

In the end... the dark side won. She screamed and collapsed as she located the life force from the creature and lifted a big rock from the ground, letting it fall over her pet.

It made a disgusting smashing sound and a small cry from the animal was heard.

"Yes! yes! Well done, Azam!" Palpatine rejoiced. Things hadn't went the way he had wanted it, but she had done it anyways.

"My young aprentice, Azam, today has conquered one of her biggest tests! and for that, she has earned her lightsaber!" Palpatine roared with the crowd as Rey composed herself.

At the other side of the galaxy Kylo had felt Rey's conflict and ended up keeping her anger, which the knights of Ren payed for.

"Do you know... why it was important for you to care for that animal? For you to be able to kill it?" Palpatine asked.

Rey was still on the floor, kneeling and feeling more tired than ever.

"No" A single tear fell from her eyes but she hurried to wipe it away.

"The stupid Jedi's, those fools... they feared feeling, they feared connections. It's important for you to feel Azam, wheter is good or bad. Feel it all."

She was still confused... so she voiced her biggest doubt.

"Why would I kill something I love? and in such a cruel way" She asked with a soar throath.

"Because you're strong Azam. You're very strong. Only someone strong can kill, and you've made it. His suffering was quick and it served you a great purpose". Palpatine explained.

(Quick note: I hate Palpatine so much, I hate writing this and the way he's brainwashing her so much. I'm sorry. Also I don't agree with any bullshit Palpatine says lol)

So she started to believe it. Of course it was better to see things that way, and not to think that she had been cruel and it was something bad.

"Have you killed?" she wondered then.

"Many times... and all those times, I've gained more power. Don't ever be afraid to do it" He said.

She didn't want to talk anymore so she shook her head like she understood and made up her mind. She was doing things right, she had earned her lightsaber and she wouldn't be punished.

She was allowed to go back to her room, and she felt nothing when she saw the old cloth she had put on the floor for her pet to sleep on. She threw it away with no second toughts and then went to bed.

Outer Rim.

Kylo allowed the knights to go out and destroy whatever they wanted as he was on his room working on something.

An element that was very distinct on Ren, on his own grandfather.

A helmet.

His shield, his new face for everyone, with no cracks. 

The image of it had come to him in a dream, after hearing the voice of his grandfather and he'd been working on the design for weeks now.

He was never happy with how it looked, so he started over and over again.

But today... today it seemed like he had finally made things right.

He held it up with both hands, admiring it, criticising it. Because that was something Kylo always did, analize things, find its week spots.

He could almost hear his grandfather agreeing with him that this was it.

He went to his mirror preparing to put it on, but as he lowered it on his head he found his eyes in the mirror.

He saw the dark circles under his eyes and the serious look he wore everyday, this was him now.

He didn't allow his mind to wander any further and put the helmet on.

Nothing. No expression. No sight of his face.

Good. That way he could isolate himself from others, and himself.

Kylo didn't like looking at himself much because it always remembered him of who he was, who his family was... and not who he wanted to be.

When he took it off and left it on his desk he thought he saw the girl from his dreams for a second.

Putting on a black cloack and walking somewhere.

He didn't want to be alone in this ship anymore. It was not like he and the knights were the best friends, but if something would help him to forget it was going out and destroying things with them.

So he took his saber and his new helmet and headed out.

Exegol

"Come, my child. I'm going to give you what you've earned and then I'll show you how to turn it into a Sith weapon" Palpatine said to Rey.

She walked there, knowing that she was being watched.

"Congratulations, Azam." Palpatine said handing her the weapon.

Some part of Rey was not happy with this, she knew it was wrong, but the part of her that helped her survive, the part that of her created due to all the punishes and struggles, it celebrated.

Happy that for once she was being rewarded.

"Thank you, master". She admired it. The silver stick was long and a little arched in the handle adding to it's design, it also had a row of black strippes on the bottom.

"May I..." she mumbled and searched her grandfather's eyes for permission.

"Go on"

She touched a button and a bright purple light emerged, she realized that it wasn't the only thing. When the laser activated some spikes would also come out from the top part, they'll probably cause damage to her oponent if she was in a fight.

Little Rey's mouth opened and then she smiled with anticipation.

Her weapon, finally.

"Of course you can't keep that horrible color which is why I'm going to explain to you how to turn the crystal red." Palpatine was standing close to her.

Rey played a little with the saber and then turned it off again.

"Is it hard?"

"Not really, if you focus." 

Rey would listen to him, he would follow all his instructions from now on... because it felt good.

"Okay, master."

"What you need to do is talk to the crystal, ho-"

"Can crystals talk?" Rey asked excitedly without thinking twice that she was interrupting Palpatine.

"Azam!"

"Sorry, master."

"You will talk to the crystal and you'll follow the call to the dark side, wherever you feel is the strongest to you and there with all your power and the power of this place turn the crystal, make it bleed, make it suffer. Make. It. Yours." Rey swallowed and nodded, the process sounded complicated.

Of course it will be. She remembered that the crystals were also alive, they also had a force and to finally make it hers, so it connected with her in every moment and in battle, to become an extension of herself, she would have to make it bleed.

"Come on, search for it Azam." He encouraged her.

It was another test of course, to see how connected she really was, to see if the dark side had embraced her and she it.

Rey used her force to carefully break apart the saber and take the crystal out.

"Wow" she mumbled once she held it in her hand, she had small hands still. The hands of a child, and the crystal fitted on the palm of her hand.

It was a beautiful shining purple and even with the dim light of Exegol it seemed bright.

"Hurry up, because the crystal will fight until you make it yours. Feel it pushing away from you" Palpatine said.

Rey could feel it, she even thought that the lightning reflections she was seeing were not reflections at all but the crystal preparing to hurt her.

She got up and closed her eyes, following the orders of her master, feeling all the spaces in this place and finally walking to the right edge, she stopped a lot before she reached it and knew she was there.

It was colder and she felt grounded but at the same time lightheaded from the strength of the force. She closed her eyes again and pressed the crystal tighter on her hand and suddenly, she wasn't helding the crystal anymore, but her former pet.

The death of her pet, it's murder appeared in front of her, like a movie each bad thing, each moment she had suffered, all the pain she went throgh in Jakku and then hear, it flashed before her eyes.

For a little girl like her this images were too much, she couldn't even make sense of them, just see them and feel, feel all of those things again. She collapsed on her knees beggin the crystal to stop it.

"Focus Azam, be stronger. Make it yours!" Palpatine's voice came to her through her haze.

She bit on her lips, the preassure was so much they sting and her palms were pressed tightly.

She groaned and screamed, her head pounded as she fought for control over the thing on her hand, she went through all her memories again and again, accepting her feelings, making them dissapear in the back of her mind, for a second the image of the boy on the wall also flashed before her and it was finally when she saw her murdering her pet again that she decided it was enough.

"Stop! you're mine!" she shouted and panted closing her fist more tight over the crystal and finally, she felt the force change, a lightning fell very close to her once she opened her eyes and she panted heavily.

"I made it" she announced looking down. Her hand had many cuts and her lips were bleeding, but nothing mattered because she could tell that it wasn't her blood turning the crystal red, it was it's new color.

She smiled thriumphantly and raised the gem so her grandfather would see it.

He smiled back. It wasn't only because she had been the youngest apprentice to do this, but because her eyes were glowing yellow, almost gold. The eyes of a sith.

They went away after a while, but it was a good sign. It ment that she had connected with the dark side on it's purest evil, the center of it's force.

Rey finished putting the saber back together and stood up. Bloody hands and a bloody chin, she proudly activated her saber and posed like she was going to attack. Her public roared, cheered for her and her smile grew wider.

"Azam Palpatine, your training has only begun, as this will mark a new start on your way to becoming the most powerful Sith, my heir. One day... you'll be empress!" Palpatine told not only Rey but the Sith eternals and they sounded very excited at his words.

As months went by Rey and Ben learned more and more about the dark side, falling for it's seduction, falling for it's power. Becoming Azam and Kylo more and more each day.

Kylo was still with the knights of Ren and from their destruction he had learned about order, about options and with how much they traveled he had learned new places around the galaxy. 

An old habit from his life as Ben that he just couldn't quit was writing.

He used to study a lot, to read and then write down his ideas. Things weren't so different now, he liked writing down all the ideas he had, and sometimes, when he got a glimpse he would write whatever he remembered about the girl in his dreams.

As the dark side of the force grew stronger inside Kylo and Azam, their visions of each other stoped. Their connection would never seize, as it was part of the plan, but the capacity of seeing each other or interact in the same place would be temporarily broken.

Still... the flashes of each other, the image of a man who didn't belong in the crowd or a weapon Kylo knew none of the Knights owned would sometimes be there, out of nowhere, from a place very far away.

The last time they talked to each other in a connection was Rey's tenth birthday.

Rey could still remember when her birtday was, and since she came her she had never received anything, nor celebrated so she wasn't expecting anything today either.

She woke up because she had had the same awful dream she had since she was abandoned in Jakku. Her parents would talk to her in dreams, promising her that they'll come back.

She couldn't stand it. She always woke up crying and to her surprise she found that this time her head only hurted a little, but there were no tears.

Her grandfather was right, embracing the dark side was making her stronger. She could stand pain, she could manipulate anger, she could follow the call of the dark... and there she'll be safe. Powerful.

She looked at herself in the mirror as she always did on her birthday.

Ten years old...

"I look the same" Rey mumbled. Her eyes carefully inspected her face, her hair, her neck and then she looked down at her arms, her muscles.

How was a ten year old supposed to look? She had never met other kids, and no other woman but her mother.

She hadn't been hugged since she was five... nor felt a gentle hand in such a long time.

She looked at herself once more in the mirror and sighed. Then went to her bed and lifted the matress.

Another mark had to be made. After she took her time carving into the stone and gently running her hand over the line to take off the dust she repaired on her name.

Her real name.

And it made her mad. It made her mad because it confused her, because it remember her about her pain and weakness.

She took a deep breath and allowed herself a moment to think about those feelings, then put the matress back and stood up.

She didn't need that.

She had finished getting ready for her training of the day when she felt it.

It was clear and so strong that Rey thought that if she concentrated enough she could feel it, so she turned.

"What are you doing?" Rey asked making Ben's head lift from his book.

His first reaction was for his mouth to open. The girl's eyes were glowing yellow.

"I'm writing" he took a mental note to write about her eyes and then stood up from the desk.

"Are you going somewhere or what?" he asked crossing his arms over his chest.

She was dressed in all black, with her hair up in a bun with many intricate braids and a black tunic.

"Somewhere..." Rey answered.

"You're not real, are you?" Rey asked tilting her head.

She felt like in a dream she should be able to answer that question to herself... but here, she wasn't sure what this was.

Ben snickered.

"I AM real, but I doubt that you are" he admited.

"Well I am. Today's my birthday." For some reason she wanted him to know that.

He nodded.

"Happy birthday" If any of the knights came in and caught him not only talking with some girl but wishing happy birthdays instead of hurting people they wouldn't believe it.

"Thanks" She mumbled.

They didn't have a chance to say anything else because their connection ended.

Rey drew lines with her boot in the sand, uncomfortable... hoping that maybe she'll get a chance to talk to that kid again. He seemed older than her, real or not, and maybe he could talk to her more.

Ben respectively crossed his arms, he knew the connecton was not coming back. He decided that he'll meditate a little after his duty with the knights ended.

He grabbed his helmet and cape and headed outside.

She grabbed her lightsaber and put on her hood and walked out.

"Azam, we're going somewhere to complete your training. Leave your saber." Was the first thing Palpatine told her when they met.

She didn't know how her master would be able to move if he had to be held by that machine all the time, but if he said they were going... they were going.


	7. Azam Palpatine

Rey looked out the windows the whole way to wherever her master had planned on taken her.

It had been so long since she saw something more than shadows and lightning that she couldn't keep her eyes away... the days of sun and the hot sand seamed far away too.

Right now as she traveled faster than light and saw a blur of stars the space and blue, her eyes were wide open.

It was beautiful.

As she had thought before, her grandfather hadn't been capable of joining her on this journey but he had given very clear instructions not only to her but to the troopers that were with her.

They had a type of gun which she called lightning, as she didn't know the name but knew they shoot fast, and instead of feeling like they were protecting her she felt like they would use them against her in any moment.

"We're close, Miss Azam" A trooper told her and she nodded.

She was still a child, she should follow orders and ask questions, not lead soldiers or make decitions.

Once they got there Rey had to hide her dissapointment.

Rey wanted to go somewhere different from Exegol, not a different version of it.

She tightened her cloack around her and put her hood on, preparing to go out.

They landed in the middle of what Rey called a big puddle, with not that many trees around them but a lot of fog.

The minute she started descending from the ship she felt chills going down her spine, she felt watched and not by the soldier that were with her. The fog didn't help at all, the mind can play tricks on everyone, but it is even worst for the kids, as the noises of the creatures of this place left her wondering where they would be... how they looked... if they were going to hurt her, the trees silhouettes weren't helping either.

And there was something more, somthing intense, something calling for her. Just as her grandfather had said. This place was strong with the force.

The troopers walked behind her, giving her insructions to get to the cave. There was really no need, as Rey could feel it's call, but she felt better knowing that there was someone else with her.

She concentrated every step of the way to feel the force and connect with it and an abrupt noise of something cracking scared her, she quickly took her saber from her belt and turned it on, spinning to search for whatever made the noise.

"We're sorry, everything's fine miss, we steped on some old bones." One of the troopers told her.

The others had taken a few steps back when they saw her ignite the saber. They knew she was a child, but they also knew who she was familiar with and had seen her fight before.

There was something sinister on seeing a kid with her face covered, ready to fight as they lunge with their weapon towards you.

"Hurry up" Rey said and put her saber away, hoping that they couldn't see how much she wa shaking.

Finally, they found it.

"We need your weapons, Miss Palpatine" the trooper in charge said.

"Why?"

"The emperor said that you wouldn't need your weapon and asked for us to take it before you went inside" he explained.

"But it's mine."

"It is, we're just following orders. We'll give it back to you as soon as you get out." The trooper wouldn't hesitate on restraining Azam and taking her lightsaber if she didn't cooperate, he was a soldier not a care taker after all and didn't have much patience.

Thankfully, he and Rey were scared of the same person more than they wanted. So, Rey gave him her saber.

"We'll wait out here." he said going back to the formation with the rest of the troopers.

Rey took her hood of, she started walking towards the cave, taking deep breaths.

She'd asked her grandfather what was inside here... why was it so important for her to come here as part of her training.

"The whole planet holds a connection like nothing else to the force, it's one of the few places around the galaxy like this, and in that planet... inside that cabe you'll have to face your conflict. What's holding you back from being who you really are, from your power. You're going to that place... to face what you've been to weak to bury, and when you do it Azam... there won't be no turning back. It'll allow you to connect with the force with no more distractions." He had said.

What she had been too weak to bury... she hadn't buried anything.

She stoped a few steps inside, she couldn't see a thing and she started breathing heavy.

"Come on, Rey" She heard.

She reached instantly for her saber, only to find that she had nothing.

She remembered that she had her knife on her boot so she took it out, she didn't where to walk to, but she knew she couldn't get out.

"Shut up" she said, warily taking more steps inside, following the echo of that voice.

"Rey" The voice changed from tone and volume, it moved around and surrounded her, like it floated.

Sometimes she heard the voice of her mother, or was it hers?, her father, her grandfather... a boy or a girl.

"Shut up!"

"Look at yourself Rey, what have you become?" This time she turn around to face the voice.

"I'm not Rey!" 

"Of course you are. We are." A red lightsaber ignited, and a figure was revealed.

"I'm not!" Rey said holding the knife out. She was facng herself and for a moment she thought that she had found a mirror or something.

"Remember who you are. Where you come from, you're alone Rey. We were abandoned."

"You're not real" Rey decided to say taking a step forward. She wanted her voice to sound firm and her actions convincng when in reality she was more scared than anything.

"You're alone Rey" she said again. She threw the knife at her, this weird vision from the cave and hit it right on the chest, just to go through it and falling somewher on the other side of the cave.

"Shit..." she murmured kneeling to search for it, only to discover death mouses on the floor.

Some were death and some were crushed, like she had done to her pet. She felt something sticky on her hands and feared that they were covered in blood.

She stood up shaking, taking quick breaths and biting her lip s she wouldn't cry.

"Focus Azam, This is all part of the test, don't be scared. You know what you have to do!" The voice of her master came to her.

"Yes, master." she whispered.

Like that time, that she had to remember how much she loved her pet to kill it, she remembered that again, it made her strong. She had been strong to kill it, she had power and finding her knife wasn't a challenge at all.

She took a deep breath and kneeled on the floor again, extending her hands to look for the knife. There were still a lot of corpses, but she murmured again and again that she was trong.

"I did nothing wrong, I did nothing wrong. I'm powerful. This blood is a representation of my power" then, she found it.

She stood up again, holding the knife and waiting fro something else to happen.

Was this all? She had passed her test?

"Do you really believe what you did was good?" That annoying voice again.

"Yes!"

"It wasn't" this time the voice chainged again.

"I'm not scared anymore. Come out!" she dared. 

She was powerful. She was powerful.

"Rey"

She turned around and adopted a defensive pose. But she wasn't ready for wha she saw.

"Rey" It was her. It was her as a child, when she had been abandoned in Jakku and she held a blue lightsaber, different than the one she used to train with before she earned her red one.

She had never seen this one before.

Her hand trembled and she struggled to keep it pointed at herself.

"Don't come close"

"They're gone." her parents.

She held back her words.

"You know what you have to do" Palpatine's voice came to her mind.

"It doesn't matter" she answered to her younger self.

"They left us, abandoned. They have allowed for all of this bad things to happen to us" The kid in front of her then showed bruises that Rey had experienced before. Busted lips, marks, a face full of tears, her damaged knees from being dragged on Exegol, marks of slaps and other hits.

"I am strong."

"You are alone, and scared" the little kid said walking towards her.

"I'm not."

"Rey" 

"Don't call me that. That's not my name anymore!"

She took a step forwards, she'll have to bend down to hurt this kid.

"You say that because you're afraid, because you know they're not coming back but-"

"Azam, you know what to do!" Palpatine pressed.

"I don't need them. I don't need anybody". She was now face to face with the kid.

The kid extended her arm but Rey didn't move because she knew none of this was real and she couldn't hurt her.

"Take it" the kid offered her the lightsaber.

"I'm going to kill you." Rey said... finally taking a decition.

"You don't like to kill. That's not you, Rey." The kid still offered the lightsaber to her.

"Do it" Palpatine said.

"I am Azam. I'm not afraid, I am powerful" Rey took the lightsaber to probe it. She would kill this child with the weapon she was offered.

But when she took it... she saw.

She saw flashes of her parents, faint echoes of laughs and conversations they had, she saw the refection of a boy, taller than her, they boy that sometimes appeared in her dreams, she saw hands touching and arms surrounding her. She should feel trap but instead she felt... warm.

She screamed and threw the lightsaber away, running out of the cave.

Outside the troopers were talking to somebody.

"Miss Rey, the emperor says you're not done and we can't go until you finish what we came to do" He said.

"But... I did it. I went inside, now I'm done. Let's go." She tried walking but they blocked her way.

"The emperor sayd. You. Have. To. Go. Back." he repeated.

After arguing for a while Rey eneded up going back to the stupid cave.

Somewhere else. Snoke's planet.

"Again." He sentenced.

"I don't see anything wrong with it. I built the same stupid mountain of rocks." Kylo said kicking the floor.

"I said again. You are training, I don't care if you build a palace with the rocks, I want you to control them fast and efortlesly!" Snoke roared.

Kylo took his mask off.

"You know I can do it. Can't we work on something else?"

"Hm... there it is. It seems the knights have showed you how to be insolent."

"I haven't seen the knights in a month." Kylo said.

"So you're mad or what? Do you want to keep going around the galaxy doing nothing instead of training? Your uncle wouldn't be that stupid." Snoke smirked.

He loved remembering Kylo that he wasn't enough. That he wasn't as powerful as his grandfather or his uncle.

"I was just saying that I haven't seen them and I'm stronger than this"

"Well then do it again". 

Dagobah

Rey had tried to escape four times now, but somehow Palpatine knew that she wasn't done so the troopers send her in again.

She had faced her fear of killing, or at least her guilt, so mouses were no longer appearing but the girl.

Herself. She kept showing up and offering the damn blue lightsaber.

She hated it.

She hated the feeling of happines and hope she felt when she held it and it showed her things

It felt like light.

Like the sun touching her skin.

Like a touch she hadn't felt in years.

"Rey..." that wasn't the girls voice.

That was new.

Familiar but not clear.

At this point Rey was crying on the floor, desperate to go and not being capable to kill herself.

"Come" the little girl said.

"Azam!" Palpatine was losing his temper. He tought she was finally stron ger than this.

She realized that she was already in trouble and she would propably have consequences when she got back to Exegol for taking so long.

She started shaking with fear.

"I have to do it. I can do it" she mumbled.

"Rey" the kid walked close to her and offered her the lightsaber.

Rey wiped her tears and took a deep breath.

She stood up and instead of taking the lightsaber she stabbed herself. She cried and screamed but the vision of her younger self evaporated.

No blood.

She finally went out, she looked at the troopers daringly.

But this time they didn't stop her when she started walking towards the ship.

"My saber" she turned around and they stopped abruptly.

"Here" the trooper gave it back quickly and bowed a little.

Rey could sense that they were scared of her.

She could feel everything ten times more.

The noises and creatures of the planet were no longer scary.

They conected with her, showed her their home, and their form.

She could even sense the growth in her power.

This time, her golden eyes stayed that way even when they got back to Exegol.

When she caught her reflection in the ship she smiled.

Somewhere else

"Don't take that thing with you! Just leave it." Snoke hated Kylo's mask.

Since the first time he saw it he told him that it was just a cheap copy of Darth Vader's one.

"What if I lose it?"

"We are the only people in this planet."

Still, Kylo used the force to pull his mask towarda him as he waljmked behind Snoke.

"Skywalker showed you a lot of things, even if you didn't finish your training, but I don't think he ever showed you this"

"What-" before kylo could formulate his question the force pushed him forward and his mask fell from his hands.

"What are you doing?" Snoke held him up above the ground.

"You can lift more than rocks right? Then... lift yourself" Snoke said.

He slowly walked to the edge of the hill and Kylo tried pulling the air to stop it.

"Wait"

"You can dot it Kylo, just concentrate." Snoke said.

"I can't if you do it out of nowhere!" He exclaimed. He could see a lot of pointy rocks under him and gulped.

"Yes you can. If you can control yourself under pressure you'll be able to do it all the time. This is part of your training." Snoke declared.

"You're just punish-" he screamed when he felt that he had started falling.

"Snoke!"

"Come on. Lift yourself boy" Snoke shouted. Kylo could swore that he was smiling.

And he also knew that if he didn't stop himself, Snoke wouldn't do it.

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, concentrating on his body, the rocks, the ground, the life on the planet.

He opened one eye and the the other.

He had barely saved himself.

The rocks were near him, but he hadn't crashed.

He lowered himself and then started walking up the cliff, jumping here and there to get back faster.

"You're alive" Snoke said surprised.

"What was that?!"

"Your training"

"I could have died."

"But you didn't"

Ben went to look for his mask and brushed the dust away from it.

"That kind of thinking is what makes you weak" Snoke said appearing behind him.

"What?" Ben asked harshly.

"You're thinking that Luke Skywalker would've catch you if you couldn't. Well, that's weak. The jedi... they always wanted someone to save them. To fight in groups. Pathetic. You depend on yourself Ren"

Kylo often hated that Snoke could see into his mind like that.

"You survived. Come on. Run three more laps and then you can go rest." Snoke walked away leaving Ben there.

He was tired of the stupid laps and training courses.

Of course, there was no way that he could skip them.

He finished covered in sweat and tiredly walked to his room.

He should still have some of yesterday's food, and he didn't then he'll just sleep.

He was too tired to cook anything right now.

He always ate alone... he had never seen Snoke eat anything, not even the first time he joined him.

He found a piece of bread from the day before and an apple, after eating he took a quick shower and then he changed and collapsed on his bed.

He was tired and had forgoten about todays training and for reason he felt this build up cojrage inside him.

He tossed in bed all night and often saw the image of a red lighrsaber with spikes.

Exegol

"I'm very proud of you Azam" Palpatine said.

Rey noticed when she came in that people in the laboratory were working hard on something.

The laboratory was on the edge behind the place where Palpatine usually was and she had never been allowed to enter.

"I'm sorry, master" Rey kneeled.

"You had some problems but you made it Azam. Come here" it was never good to get close to him.

Rey stood up and walked.

Palpatine extended his hand and took her chin.

Rey could feel the bones of his fingers and the holes on his skin as he touched her face.

Her eyes were still gold.

"My child... you're learning fast, you're more intelligent and strong that I expected." He said turning her face from side to side.

Rey felt shame.

"Thank you, master" she said and the grip on her chin was a little tighter.

"Next time don't hesitate so much. It's unnecesary, Azam." He was hurting her chin and then pushed her away.

"Yes, master." Rey said trying not to touch her face.

"That's all for today, Azam." He dismissed her and the machine holding him up directed him to some of his soldiers.

Back in her room Azam contemplated her eyes. She wondered if they'll stay that way forever.

Then she lifted her matress and saw the marks and her name.

She'll never do it again.

It was over.

After killing the vision of her younger self today she had decided that she would be strong.

And she didn't need those memories. Those voices.

She didn't have to wait for anyone as she learned that she was allone and would have to figure things out on her own. And she could.

That was the day that Rey stoped calling herself Rey and the last day she would mark anything down.

Ben dreamed of a knife. Of a cave and a place filled with shadows.

He dreamed about his parents which he hadn't seen in such a long time.

And he didn't understand why... but he dreamed about going somewhere, getting and looking for something with more urgency that he had never felt before.

"I'm coming..." he murmured in his sleep.

And that voice traveled around the galaxy to be heard by Rey in her sleep.


	8. 6. Anger

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the dealy.

Azam pushed herself, she knew that if she didn't win this combat Palpatine wouldn't let her get the parts she needed for her new lightsaber.

Beads of sweat covered her face and went down her back as she dodged, lunged and attacked the guards.

"Come on, Azam! You're slow" Palpatine shouted.

Azam concentrated more and hit one of the guards disarming him.

There were two more to go.

She used the force to lift one of them but the other took advantage of her being so foceused on the other that he was able to hit Rey in the back, making her fall on her face and hit the floor.

Azam cursed under her breath.

During training the soldiers were allowed to hurt her as much as she could hurt them, meaning that she had to move and fast if she didn't want to end up with something broken.

As she could she rolled to her side avoiding an attack and then stood up, she grunted from the pain but bit her lip to concentrate.

This time she went for a combat with her saber and their weapons, after a half hour filled with jumps and another injury she was able to put them down.

"Very good, very good, Azam. During your next training you'll face six guards, I know you will do it even better than today". Palpatine said from the throne.

He had a small smile, happy with how exhausted Azam looked.

She had one knee on the floor and the other bent, a sign of respect when talking to her master. Some of her hair had scaped her braids, beads of sweat covered her body and there was blood on her cheek and her lip.

Palpatine considered her somewhat like a pet. To be trained. To entertain him.

"You can go now" if she didn't she may have passed out anyways, he thought.

His machine started moving him away, to the laboratory when he heard Azam's voice.

"Master...?"

"Yes?" he didn't turn around.

"Have I earned the materials for my lightsaber?" Palpatine side smiled again.

"One of the guards will deliver them to you later" 

"Thanks grandpa!" She exclaimed and stood up as if she was going to go and hug him. "I mean, thanks Master" she cleared her throat and bowed even if Palpatine wasn't looking at her.

What the hell was she thinking speaking like that?

Palpatine didn't welcomed her or say anything else but left instead.

Good. He thought. Once again, just like training a pet. Giving her a price every time she did something right and punishing when doing the wrong. She was going to be the most obedient apprentice. 

Somewhere else

"Grandfather... please, tell me what to do." Kylo sat in his bedroom and closed his eyes.

That was how he was able to comunicate to his grandfather and today he needed his guide.

He wasn't sure if he should stay with Snoke, after all he had tried to kill him, and the weeks following that his training had been hard and on his opinion useless.

Should he go out with the knights? He was their leader after all. Should he ask Snoke to allow him to be with the first order aboard the new death star? He didn't know what to do.

And a small part, a tiny, bothering one also wanted to contact his parents.

"Continue your training, be strong with the force" he heard his grandfather's voice say. It was deep and machine like, but somehow it brought comfort to Kylo.

He sighed, he was kind of hoping that maybe his grandfather had other plans for him.

Resigned he sat on his desk and crossed out Jakku with the knights of his list of things to do for the week.

If he was training then he'll have to stay at least for another month here. 

It wasn't that he didn't like it here, Snoke had actualy chosen a beautiful planet to stay in, with many places Kylo could visit when he wanted to clear his mind, and far enough that no one had ever come to bother them, but... he often felt attacked by Snoke.

Not only did he hated his mask but he usually made him less.

Reminding him his lack of strength, talent, of him not being Darth Vader or his uncle Luke.

Pushing him even when he couldn't do more.

He wondered when did Snoke stopped being his friend, who often had advised him in the past, and had become this master.

I have to train. He mumbled until he felt a little motivated and then headed outside to look for Snoke.

Exegol

Azam slammed another failed weapon on the table.

"Everything sucks!" She said angrily standing up from her desk.

She paced around her bedroom trying to calm down.

She had had one of the worst headaches she had ever experienced ever and she had no idea why.

That only added to her frustration because her design wasn't going as she had planned.

She examined her drawings and notes for the design.

She had all the tools, all the parts and it just didn't work.

"Fuck it!" She didn't know what that meant but she had heard many soldiers murmur it when they were mad, so she repeated it.

Not wanting to use her hands, she used the force to break everything apart again.

She took the cristal in her palm and examined it.

She could do it. This will work, it had to.

She closed her eyes for a second as she held the blood red cristal and when she opened her eyes they were gold.

Dagobah

"Kylo Ren, my friend, before I let you join the first order or go back with the group of throubled kids you call knights, you need to pass this test" Snoke said as they got out of the ship.

As Kylo walked behind Snoke he wiped the blood from his mouth. Snoke had smaked him for not leaving his mask and then hurt him even more by remembering him who he wasn't.

"What do you feel?" Snoke asked once they were near the entrance of the cave.

"I feel...cold... death... and more" Kylo replied.

"The cave is power and darkness, and you will enter."

"What's in there?"

"Only what you've been too weak to bury".

Kylo took a hesitant step forward but didn't enter.

"You can run away if you like..."Snoke teased him.

It was all Kylo needed to angrily head towards the cave and go inside.

First it was all dark and then it lightened up a little like someone had pushed the rays of sun inside and he found something he didn't want to see.

"I don't want to fight you" an image of his uncle said.

"I don't care". Kylo declared, igniting his saber.

Snoke smirked. He could sense all that was going on inside the cave and had a very clear idea of what Kylo would encounter.

First, Luke Skywalker.

Snoke murmured things to Kylo, poisoned his mind like he had been doing for years and years now, he pushed Kylo to use his hate, to remember that Skywalker almost killed him in his sleep and that he had to kill him now to finally be free.

"That's it! Strike him down!" Snoke encouraged him and after fighting Kylo was able to kill his uncle.

"I'm ready master. I'm done" Kylo said turning off his saber when a voice interrupted him.

"Ben?"

His mothers voice...

"This is far from over" Snoke said, paying even more attention to the force.

How Kylo answered to this situation would determine if he was ready or not.

"Ben, please stop." His mother said. He turned around and discovered that she was not alone, his dad stood beside her.

"Come home" His dad said.

"Please, Ben"

It was hard for Kylo to hear them, to see them. He was fighting himself.

In another place of the galaxy, a corrupted Rey got distracted during combat. She was training and a second ago she as fine but... now, her head ached, her heart and her connection to the dark side of the force was wanning.

She cursed when she tripped with a rock and growled standing up. For a second Palpatine wondered what happened to her.

"That's not my name" Kylo said closing his eyes. 

As always, the voice of his master was there to tell him what to do.

"I feel your conflict. Defeat it!" Snoke roared.

Kylo took deep breaths and remembered all the times he had been compared to his uncle, or his granfather. He remember how he hated his parents because they left him a long time ago and he hated that after all the things he had done he would never be able to go back, like this visions were trying to make him believe.

"Yes! I see your lightsaber ignite, and I see that you've made your desition!"

He had made a desition, it was true, but he ahd to concentrate even double so his master wouldn't notice.

He ignited his saber and attacked, smacking everything and turning it into nothing, but not his parents. He couldn't. He wouldn't be able to.

"Well done my apprentice, it is finished. I would like to see-" Snoke didn't finish talking when the cave exploited before him.

"Your show of power is impressive." Snoke said. 

His apprentice stood in the middle of what had been the cave.

"But that cave had stood for thousand of years. I hoped to bring other apprentices to it" Snoke said.

"You won't need other apprentices". Kylo declared, making a very subtle side smile apear on his masters face.

Kylo took the lead and started walking to the ship.

Snoke stood back to focus on the force once more, Kylo's energy had shifted, he was certainly not in conflict anymore.

"Good" Snoke murmured and made his own way to the ship.

Exegol

Palpatine was about to punish Azam for doing so bad so suddenly on the training course, but after a moment, she exploded with more rage that she had before and her control was back.

Her eyes shone for a moment and small lightining created on the tip of her fingers, then she was ablel to complete the course successfully.

"Azam"

"Yes master?" Azam pulled back her hood to be able to look at her master.

"What happened?"

She swallowed. She wasn't sure, and she needed to give and answer.

"I don't know". she mumbled.

"What?"

"I don't know." She repeated louder this time. In a second she was dragged to Palpatine's feet.

"What have I told you about answering stupid stuff like that Azam? Huh? How can you not know the reason that you almost failed?!" He shouted.

His force pressed on her mind and Azam wasn't sure if that hurted more than the open skinf of her knees. Again.

"I'm sorry"

"Sorry is not enough! It's not acceptable. Figure out your mistakes and don't even answer such a stupid thing like that again!" He let go of her.

Azam bit the lip not to say -I'm sorry- again.

"Yes master"

"Go"

This days he had been more busy with other things and didn't waste as much time punishing her like before.

He had an army building something where she had felt the connection to the dark side and many meetings on the laboratory.

On her way to her bedroom Azam could see how the -army- she mentioned before were carrying rocks and forming some kind of structure.

The continious movement of her knees made the pain worst, but she had to walk, there was no other way she was going anywhere. Before she got to her room she asked one of the guards to bring her some medical supplies and then continued her way.

Once inside she stood in front of her mirror, turning her head one way and the other. She examined her eyes and in a way dared her reflection.

Her eyes were not golden, they were green, almost ambar again.

Suddenly she punched the mirror, she took off her boots and threw them at it, she screamed and took the nearest thing to her and broke it.

Then she collapsed on the ground crying.

Her breathing was uneven and her throat hurt from screaming, but nothing mattered. She was still angry, and stressed. 

What was happening to her? What was that?

It was pathetic.

She had gone throught that course millions of times before, she had felt her power growth and strengthen since she came back from Dagobah but today... for that moment, those minutes. She felt scared.

She didn't even feel like herself. She felt as if someone else had taken control of her body and didn't know how things worked, she forgot who she was and what she was doing and for a moment sadness and indesition clowded her mind.

She was about to start screaming again when someone knocked on her door.

"What?!" She opened the door to reveal a trooper with it's hands extended towards her and the medical supplies she had ordered before.

Azam couldn't see it's face but she was sure that he or she had already taken a look at the mess behind her.

"Follow me" her mechanic voice said and took Rey's arm.

"Hey! what the hell? Let go of me" Azam said, she tried breaking free but she was hurting herself more so she walked behind her.

"You don't need to tell the emperor about this, he already knows I got hurt during training!" The last thing she wanted was to get scolded, again, for having a breakdown.

The trooper didn't answer and insted conducter her to another room, Azam had never noticed it before.

It seem like this was the medical room.

"Sit down" The trooper instructed. Azam did because her knees were already shaking and opened her mouth in surprise when the trooper took her helmet off.

They weren't supposed to take their helmets off. At least ot while working.

She seemed young, well maybe not that much but not that old either.

Azam hadn't seen another woman in years.

"I suppose you can keep this a secret" She said. Azam didn't aswered, she straightened her back and pursed her lips.

The woman went around the room gathering some things and then putting them on a table next to where Azam was sitting.

"Can you move them?" She asked. Azam was lost. "Your hands"

"Oh" Azam tried and was able to, then looked up at the woman. She had curly red hair.

"Then I'll just take out the pieces of glass" she said and took Azam's hand.

She was taken aback by it and yanked it away.

"I'm trying to help you, kid." She said.

Slowly, Azam extended her hand to her and watched all her moves.

She didn't mind when she warned her that it might sting a little.

After the woman was almost done cleaning her heands and applying bandages to it Azam wanted to talk.

"What's your name?" 

"I don't have one" she shrugged.

"Then what do they call you?" She wondered.

"Soldier"

Azam nodded.

"I'm Azam" she said lifting her chin.

"I know" the woman answered without looking away from the injuries of her knees.

That made Azam a little mad.

She kind of expected that the woman knew who she was but... couldn't she be more interested?

"How many times have you injured your knees like this?" She asked cleaning them.

Azam thought about it. This year she had been dragged a couple of times, without counting the times she injured herself when she practiced.

"Like three times this week" she answered.

The woman sighed. She wasn't the only trooper that felt bad for the kid.

She was grateful that she had never been picked to fight agains her, not only because she didn't want to but because she had seen her fight and that was scary.

"You keep removing the scab so your skin is not healing"

Azam shrugged.

"It'll leave a scar" the woman warned her.

"It doesn't matter" Azam answered.

When she was done she jumped off the medical bed and stared at her.

"I'll call you Sully" she declared.

"Don't call me, at all. I was just making sure that you weren't injured real bad kid. We all know how imporrtant your training is" She said.

That hurt Rey a little.

"Well then, just tell someone to replace my mirror" She said and then exit the room.

Of course she didn't say thanks, or please, or goodbye.

She had to be strong, always, and in her head being strong right now wa pretending to not care at all about that woman or her words.

Somewhere else

"I've already informed Hux that you're joining the First Order tomorrow" Snoke said surprising Kylo.

"Thanks"

"You'll represent me on the ship and report everything to me. Don't make me regret my desition." 

"You won't, Supreme Leader" 

Kylo vowed a little and held his breath until Snoke was gone again.

He had fooled him. He had fooled himself.

Kylo decided no to go back with the knights but instead join the First Order in hopes that being closer to where everything was happen would help him stregthen his desition.

He hadn't been able to kill his parents and feared that he would always feel a temptation to the light side, but maybe... just mabybe, this time he would be able to grow and stay on the dark side for real.

In another part of the planet Snoke talked to someone.

He reported Kylo's advance in his training to the Emperor. Like he always did, everyday.

"Good. They're both doing really good". Palpatine murmured and smiled.

He contemplated what his soldiers were building. The throne. His throne, and this kids would help him have it.


	9. 7. Two years

Exegol

A year passed and the little girl learned some hard lessons.

Like how hot the lightning could burn, how bad it hurt to break your arm, how to fight with her other arm, how to free herself from dangerous situations and how to hold herself.

Not all her lessons had been bad of course, she was now able to read and write in the Sith language, her arm healed and she was now ambidextrous, she had learned the -name- of Sully, which was JL-y42 and also found out where troopers sometimes hung out.

Azam had grown a little and had to move her mirror upwards, it had been replaced twice now...

Her body was loosing some of the childish fat and getting more toned from all the training.

Her face was sinking a little and she was pale, her golden warm skin from Jakku was gone.

She had cried, gotten angry and celebrated her victories many times.

More and more a sense of loyalty grew inside her despite the way her grandfather treated her.

And in return... Palpatine would punish her less, or show her a new book, or tease about telling her of her parents. But those things happened once in a blue moon, or Palpatine would lose control over her, if he showed her more kindness.

The throne was almost done and his final order grew more and more each day.

At night she had dreams about that throne, always lookign at it from behind, never truly seeing who was sitting on it and sometimes, during trainings, Palpatine would push her to go harder, and be more alert, or she would never reach the throne.

Another year passed and Azam had now broken more parts of her body, she stayed in rest for a long time when she broke her ribs and even she had to admit that she got exasperated from doing nothing.

More manipulation from Palpatine and the encouragement of his not very nice words made Azam go back to training even stronger than before.

She had now named JL-y42, Jilyn and talked more with her since she treated her broken bones.

Her master had officially presented the throne to everyone now and let them now that one day, when Azam was ready, she would take it.

Azam still wondered about the other thing that Palpatine had his workers building all day.

This year she had seen a Sith Ethernal from up close for the first time and it wasn't as scary as she thought, they wore black gowns with a hood on, like shadows blending with the background from head to toe, their eyes were foggy or sometimes completely black and their skin... Azam tought that their skin looked like old, dusty paper, or the cinders of burned pages.

She had dreams of a green lightsaber shining bright before her face and her making the Dagobah cave blow into a million pieces. Those were nightmares more than anything.

She was now twelve years old, a few years too young for her master to show her another very important weapon of the Sith, but one that she'll learn soon.

First Order ship

"Don't you dare go against me and change course now!" Kylo said to one of the admirals.

"Sir... Supreme Leader S-"

"I am here on his behalf, now. Move!" Kylo slammed the admiral against the floor before leaving the room and going to his to check on his notes again.

The men on the room shared pannicked looks as they followed his orders and changed course.

They feared both Snoke and Kylo equally, but Kylo was the one present at the moment.

His two years on the ship had been interesting so far, and at many times... tiring and stressing.

His plan had been for this place to remind him that he had made a good choice and should stay on the dark side, it did not work, but as he was so occupied all the time he had at least found a way to distract himself and do something.

A good part of being far from Snoke again was that he wasn't bullied as much but the bad part was that he still had to call him everyday to let him know how everything was going.

Like Hux didn't tell him everything anyways.

They had had to see each other's faces for two years now and somehow their relationship was worst everyday.

Hux coudln't stand Kylo and kylo hated Hux for always beeng in the way, for being favored in the eyes of Snoke, for having control of the force.

Echoes of his new name were more and more common across the galaxy, or as some called him, the jedi killer.

To the outside and his soldiers he was the man behind the mask who would kill them if they didn't follow his orders.

He may haven't found a certain answer to wheter he should stay in the dark or go to the light, the conflict was somehow still there but... each day he found himself doing things he thought he'll never do, growing angrier and deadlier.

Thankfully he hadn't crossed paths with the resistance and he hoped that things stayed like that. It was better and easier to ignore his parents than having to face them, and showing Snoke the same weakness he had at the cave.

Kylo sometimes had weird dreams of lightnings and a cold wind consumed his body, he sometimes thought he heard the echo of a man that reminded him of Snoke too. Anyways those dreams never allowed him to go back to sleep.

He was merely an expectator when he saw those things, he couldn't talk or move, just stay standing on the edge of something with sand on the ground and lots of lightning.

Today he was planning on visiting one of the biggest planets across the galaxy, because he had heard great stories about their people and all the things they could obtain from them.

He would do the same as he had done in many places now, give them two very easy choices.

Join the first Order or die.

Exegol

Azam was coming back to her room after a long day of lessons and practice, her dinner was already there but she wasn't hungry.

She had felt a weird discomfort in her belly for hours now and she was tired.

She decided to take a shower and then go to sleep.

Azam sighed, kicked off her boots and started undressing, she went to her brathroom still in her underwear and waited for the water to be a little hot, it was a miracle when it did.

She wondered how she could be so sweaty that even her underwear felt like that and then undressed to get inside the shower.

She took a step and felt something running down her leg. Had she washed her hands or something? Where was this coming from? She slowly looked down and followed the thin, red string down her leg.

"What the hell...?" she murmured.

With her finger she wiped the drop and examined it closer. I t was blood.

Her blood. But how? she hadn't gotten injured today... where was it coming from...?

Azam tried to find any injries on her body but there were none, then she remembered that she had seen soemthing weird in her underwear...

She took it up and saw a liquid.

"What...?" She swallowed hard. She didn't know what to do, or who to go to, so she got in the shower and hoped that it'll go away.

Once she was done she rubbed her skin with a towel... and once again found red spots.

Azam started to freack out.

Should she tell her master about this? What was wrong with her?

She quickly changed into whatever and got out of her room, freaking out and deciding that she wanted to talk with Jilyn.

The walls around her, or the piles of rock seemed endless, and the thunders and lightinings felt like the rhytm of her heart.

Jilyn was with a group of some other troopers, in the place where they use to hide and rest.

Azam straightened up and tried to fake confidence as she strot towards her.

"JL-y42, the emperor wants to see you. Follow me." Her tone had been serious enough and the other troopers traightened when they saw her.

They never thought that Azam would found their hiding place.

Jilyn hurried and walked behind her, when they were far enough from everyone Azam abrouptly stopped walking.

"Jilyn... I need your help" she said turning around, and the trooper noticed for the first time that the little girls face was paler than ususal and her hands were fidgety.

"What happened?" The first months after they first talked, Jilyn tried to stay far from Azam as much as she could, because she felt like that girl would only bring her trouble, but she couldn't help but feel sorry for her... so alone in this place. And then, when she broke her ribs Jilyn was the one to spend months by her side healing her and helping her, so in the end... she had failed and started caring about the girl.

"I... I don't know, I don't even want to tell you but. I'm-" Scared. Azam was terrified, but she didn't want to say it out loud.

"Let's go to the infirmary" she proposed.

As soon as they got there and she closed the door Azam started pacing here and there.

Jilyn took off her helmet.

"Azam, sit down." She hated people pacing.

"But-" her eyes were watery.

"Are you hurt? what happened?" the girl didn't look bad.

"I... I'm bleeding." Azam murmured.

"I can't see any injuries" Jilyn said, examining her once again from head to toe with her gaze.

Azam covered her face in shame.

"I'm... I think I'm bleeding from my stomach or something, maybe my rib broke again and the blood is coming out... I don't know" the girl said with her hands still on her face.

And her words made sense to Jilyn. She remembered that Azam had turned twelve and knew what may be going on.

"I assume no one has talked to you, and no one will if I don't so... come sit"

Azam went back to her room two hours later, with something in her underwear and a lot of things on her mind. But at least now she knew.

Topp

This was the planet where Kylo was supposed to meet his knights.

Even if he wasn't out there with them, they still worked for him and reported their activities once in a while.

Today he was there to offer them to come to the next planet, where he was hoping to complete something his grandfather didn't.

Snoke had given him the task to make the people from that planet join the order, because he needed something from them and not only to expand like in most places.

There were a lot of materials that their soldiers could use, but this planet had been stubborn and rejected Vader a long time ago.

Kylo got down from the ship until the knights told him through their radio that they were at the meeting spot.

Two guards walked behind him as he went to the bar where they'll meet. Kylo hated bars, mostly because he hated the people in them and the loud music, but the knights had always had some preference for this type of places, like when Ren guided them.

Their dark, masked figures weren't hard to find at all. Sitting at the bar and looking at the entrance, they stood up in respect when they saw Kylo.

"Vicrul, Cardo, Ushar, Trudgen, Kuruk, Ap'lek. Good evening" Kylo acknowledged them.

"Master" they said nodding their heads.

"What have you been up to?" Kylo asked.

The knights offered him to go to a table on the edge of the bar where they could talk more privately and he accepted.

As the knights told him all about their adventures, Kylo couldn't help but miss a little of that action. In fact all that Kylo had once wished to do with his life was to be a pilot and go around the galaxy learning things... being with them had been the closest to it so far.

Then they started talking about the unnecessary killing and destruction they brought with them, and Kylo forgot about going with them. Once more, recognizing that he wasn't where he wanted neighter with them or with Snoke.

"I want to offer you something" Kylo interrupted them after a while.

"We can't really say no, can we?" Kuruk joked.

Kylo ignored him and kept talking.

"I'm going on a mission for Snoke, he says that in this planet there are lots of things we can get for our army and besides... the Benathy" The moment he said Benathy he could feel the knights getting interested.

"I heard they're expanding... trying to conquer other planets" Vicrul said.

"That another reason why I have to go there. Darth Vader tried to convince them to surrender to Palpatine a long time ago... and he couldn't, but this time. They won't say no to the First Order." he said.

"And when are we going?"

"Next week, I'll send you the coordenates and the hour to the ship, you just have to be there." Kylo finished and stood up.

"Wait- aren't you gonna ask about the things we've gathered?" One of them said.

"Well you know, unless it is something I requested from you, Kyber crystals or Jedi things... I don't care" he said and kept walking back to his ship, he guards that had been waiting for him followed him too.

The knights stayed at the bar for a few more hours, talking about their leader and some of them leaving with some girls afterwards.

The force hadn't really connected them in a long time, just a flash of the other dring their birthdays, but nothing like Azam's tenth birthday anymore.

Until Kylo's twenty second birthday.

Their connection being "broken" all this years had also been a plan of Palpatine, he didn't want them to grow knowing each other or his plan could fail, but the Dyad had a mind of its own and on their birthdays... it would try and defy this breach, connecting them, even for a brief second, looking for their other half. And it had to be during those dates because the day each of them was born was the day tham the Dyad created and ultimately came together.

And this time it happened at night, in a dream.

Two days before Kylo Ren parted to try and get something that Vader couldn't, he turned twenty two. His birthdays had never been too important for anyone and he couldn't even remember if his parents had celebrated him or not.

During his training years in Luke's academy all the kids would congratulate him but that was it.

And being honest he didn't feel like his brithdays were a big deal now. Some people in the ship knew it was his brithday and congratulated him, but it was so weird that the only thing he could do was nod his head towards them.

He had had a tiring day, checking that everything was ready for their upcoming mission and he went to bed late at night.

After a warm shower he collapsed on his bed and fell asleep almost immediately. Even when he dreamed about his parents, he was somehow relaxed.

He dreamed that they were congratulating him... and suddenly the image changed.

He saw shadows on a rock wall and boots on the floor. He furrowed his brows in his sleep.

Azam was on her room, triying to get her handstand right and had managed to get her feet a few inches away from the wall when she felt like someone was watching her and she collapsed.

In a second her lightsaber was in her hand and she was about to ignite it, but she looked around her room and there was definately no one else there.

She went and lay down on her bed, she was tired and her wrists hurt.

Azam left the lightsaber on the floor and turned in bed.

I think I've seen this girl before. Kylo tought.

But the last time he'd seen her Azam looked a little more different, this time, this girl was taller, she seemed more strong and her hair was different.

"Hey" he whispered in his sleep. 

He wanted to know what the girl was doing, but she didn't hear.

Only moments later, Azam turned her head towards the wall beside her bead and a chill went down her spine.

She tought she heard a whisper and only got a glimpse of Kylo when she got up from her bed and put on her boots to get out of there.

After that, they wouldn't see each other for another year, and when Kylo woke up he barely remembered anything about it.

"We said it before to the little guy who came before you. We're not joining anyone" The Benathy chief said to Kylo.

This creatures didn't have a minimum respect, Kylo tought.

The only thing this Benathy had done since he arrived was to remind him about Vader, Vader and more Vader, and how small he was compared to them.

The ugly and big beast was tiring Kylo.

"You will join the First Order" he said. Nothing. "You WILL join the First Order" he repeated, putting emphasis in his words.

"Not because you say it louder means that we're gonna do it" The Benaty said.

In the blink of an eye, Kylo had killed almost all the other Benatys in the tent where they were talking.

"We bow to one god and one only, and that will never be you." The survivor said.

Right. Their god. The Zillo beast.

Kylo would end it.

He got out of the tent of the meeting after killing the last Benathy there and outside... he could already hear it coming.

"Not even Vader could defeast the beast, we should go now." A trooper suggested, but Kylo didn't hear him.

He took his stance ready to fight and turned on his lightsaber. That thing was coming, he could feel the sand under his feet moving.

And then, the beast attacked.

It was a snake like beast, with arm, horns and big teeth.

The troopers and other soldiers, even the knights stood back wondering if they should do something and stop Kylo, because they knew there was no way that he would win over the Zillo beast.

kylo dodged it's atacks and ran from one place to another, trying to hurt the beast, but not even his lihtsaber would damage it's scales so... he came up with a plan.

He ran fast towards the creature and then waited for it to bite him.

His crew gasped and a few troopers cursed, Hux was happy for a second, thinling that finally, he would never see Kylo Ren again when suddenly... Kylo Ren emerged from the Belly of the creature, spilling blood and guts everywhere and finally, killing the beast.

He orders the Bethany to bow to him and the First Order and they do, among his own members he has gained the respect of many.

Finally beating Vader if maybe just for one day.

Snoke would later tell the Emperor of this great task that his apprentice was able to complete.

Interesting, very interesting indeed. Palpatine thought.

Maybe it was time for him to show Azam more things.

The Emperor could already savor the strength that one day he'll get thanks to the Dyad...


	10. 8. Seduction

"Master... can I ask you something?" Azam said.

It was a weird day, no Sith Ethernals had been there all day and the lightning storm from allways was somehow less noisy.

The air wasn't as cold as always either, or maybe Azam had been so bothered by what was going on on her mind that the other things seemed less important.

For some reason... she wanted to believe that maybe there was hope again.

"What is it?" Palpatine asked.

Azam clasped her hands behind her back.

"I... I was wondering if maybe we could send a message to my parents, to let them know I'm here, since... you know, I'm okay and they're somewhere out there hiding..."

Although her master didn't make many facil expressions, she could see that he disliked the question very much.

Azam asked about her parents at least once every year, and it was always like this, out of the blue.

Palpatine thought that she would have forgotten about them since last time he told her that they had actually abandoned her and went away, not wanting anything with her. She was so mad and sad that she had threatened to get away.

The little girl had packed some clothes on a sack and walked around Exegol until she collapsed from fatigue.

Palpatine then send troopers to get her and punished her for a week for being so stupid, anyways, she wouldn't be able to go anywhere.

"Azam..." his deep voice said.

"Master, I know you've told me that they don't care about me and we don't know where they are but-"

"They're dead!"

Azam felt her eyes and nose sting and her breath got stuck in her lungs for a moment.

"What?" she murmured.

Palpatine lowered himself so the girl heard clearly what he had to say and hoped that he only had to say it once and never again talk about this.

"Azam-"

"You're lying!" she interrupted him.

As it was usual in Palpatine, he used the force to bring Azam to her knees and make her stay quiet.

"You were too young, and I didn't want to tell you this but, it's time for you to learn the truth." Azam could only shake her head.

"The resistance... Luke Slywalker, they feared my son and his family, they feared anyone who was related to me so... they send everyone out to get them, to finish them. It was terrible Azam, for years they chased after my beloved Sith Ethernals and killed them, remaining only the ones that you've seen through the years and your parents..."

Azam was feeling dizzy.

Luke Skywalker... she had heard that name before. A cursed name of a man that her grandfather hated, because he had gotten betwen him and Darth Vader, ruined his Empire and destined the Sith to live in shame. Hidden in Exegol and apparently... he was also guilty of her parents deaths.

"They knew it was a matter of time before they found them so, they decided that selling you would be their best chance at saving you, and saving themselves but... Skywalker found them and killed them." Azam closed her eyes and wished she could move her hands to cover her ears.

"You've asked so much about this, you're now fifteen years old Azam, you're old enough to know that they're not out there. They're not coming back and I'm the only one who has ever cared for you" She suddenly felt his cold hand brushing her cheek.

She was able to control her body again but she didn't want to.

Tears ran down her face as she thought about everything.

"You told me they abandoned me and they were hiding. That I wasn't enough." she murmured.

"I didn't say that. You felt that Azam. You felt like you weren't enough, I only collaborated with your story because that was the version you wanted to believe... but they never loved you, that is real."

Was that supposed to make her feel better?

"They did love me! why did they hid me if not?"

"Azam, they sold you. They had to hide and having you with them would only make them more vulnerable, in the end Skywalker killed them and I found you, bringing you here. Taking care of you, training you and keeping you safe." Palpatine said, looking her in the eye.

Azam cried some more and realized that in fact... her parents didn't love her...

"Grandfather... you're the only one that cares about me" Azam cried.

"My child..."

"I'm sorry for not being enough, sorry for trying to run away... I promise, I promise master, that I'm going to make you proud." She firmly said.

Some tears were still rolling down her face as she said that, but they weren't only from sadness.

"I forgive you, my young apprentice. I know, you will give me everything I want." he patted her hand.

"I'll come back later for my night training master" Azam said. She bowed and then walked to her bedroom.

Palpatine smiled. Certainly the girl wouldn't push anymore about this. And she didn't have to learn the truth.

Inside her room Azam was a mess, as she grew older, the darkness grew with her and thanks to the lack of interaction she had with people and everything she ever did was fight... she only knew one way to express herself.

Through force and power, through destruction. With her fists and her lightsaber.

Her room was a mess after, and her mind was set. One day she would find Skywalker and she would kill him. She would end the resistance, one by one, she would never go against her master ever again.

What would be of her without him? He was the only person who truly cared and loved her.

Azam would make sure that the Sith would rise again. She would end Luke Skywalker and everyone close to him, just like he had done with her family.

Nothing would stop her until the First Order ruled the galaxy again.

She turned off her saber and looked at herself in the mirror.

Her eyes were golden, she had missed them a lot, she smiled at her reflection and got a litle surprised when she noticed something weird in her mouth.

"Fangs..." she murmured.

They went away after a second but her eyes were still glowing. She wiped her tears away and arranged her hair.

This would be the first time that her mirror was left intact.

The next day

First Order ship

"General, there's a message from Snoke" an admiral said approaching Kylo.

"General Hux, pay attention to everyone and make sure they're following course" Kylo said, he didn't have to raise his voice much as Hux was not far away.

Hux nodded and rolled his eyes when he wasn't looking at him.

"Sir" the admiral said before leaving Kylo in the meeting room.

He waited until he heard the door close and then approached the center of the room, where a big Snoke hologram waited for him.

"Master" he kneeled on one knee.

"Take off that stupid thing" Snoke said.

Kylo made fists but he wasn't in the mood to fight today so he simply took off his mask and held it in his hands.

"What can I do for you master?"

"There are some old friends of mine in Jambu, and this friends have information about the Resistance and some plan they have" Snoke said.

"I'll send the knights then"

"No. I'm ordering you to go because I think you can do this. Do you really need six people to get a message? Why are you even on the ship then? Come on, not even my training will make you better if you can't even get a stupid message" Snoke laughed at him, like he usually did and Kylo clenched his mouth.

"I am getting the message then"

"You need to be there tomorrow at six, at the High peak restaurant. My contact told me that you would recognize her"

"Yes, master"

"Don't fail me"

"I won't" Kylo got up, expecting that Snoke would have ended the call, but he was still there.

"And do me a favor, don't bring that thing with you tomorrow. It's pathetic and you're going there representing me." Snoke said with disgust.

He meant the mask, once again.

This time the meeting was actually over and Kylo threw a chair at where Snoke's head had once been in.

Outside the room some admirals were walking by and when they heard that they walked faster. Everyone on the ship knew just how volatile Kylo Ren was, and some people had been injured in the past so... they tried to avoid him as much as they could.

Kylo put his mask back on and went outside.

"What the hell are you doing?! Straighten up, lazy assholes!" He shouted at some troopers that he found leaning on a wall on his way down to the command center.

"Sorry Sir" they said and ran far from there.

Under his mask Kylo was a little dissapointed.

There was a time when he hated being feared, when he hated people running away from him and when he was a child... he loved being kind to everyone.

But I'm not the same person anymore. I'm Kylo Ren. He reminded himself.

"General Hux, we're changing course, we need to go to Jambu"

"May I ask why? Sir"

"I'm not repeating myself General, we need to get there before tomorrow at 6" Kylo said and then left.

Exegol

"Just like I showed you yesterday Azam"

"Yes master"

The night training from yesterday had turned into a lesson Azam hadn't expected.

Seduction.

"Yesterday I explained to you the basis, and many ways that you can seduce someone so... remind me Azam, what is the point of seduction?"

She clasped her hands and concentrated, remembering her lesson.

"It's a way to change someone's mind, to get them to give us something that we want, or do something."

"Very well"

"And yesterday I showed you how to seduce with words"

"Yes, master"

"Today I have another task for you"

"Tell me, master".

Palpatine was filled with energy, he could almost smile.

If he had known that the key to gain Azam's full control and obedience were a few miserable words about her parents he would've spoke sooner.

"Today I want you to trick one of the troopers into following you to your room"

"What? And why d-"

"You'll see Azam, sometimes there are things more attractive than words, a pretty face, a nice body, a pleasant voice"

Azam wasn't sure where he was going but she was almost sure that she wasn't gonna like it.

"Seduction has no limits, my dear aprenttice, as long as you have a plan and know your target... you can get anything, from anyone. You're going to that place where the lazy troopers hide in and you'll make one of them follow you to your room, that's your task."

"Then what?"

"We'll see. But this is also something you have to learn because you're growing and I might have a surprise for you"

Azam felt better at the mention of a surprise, maybe she'll get more parta for her lightsaber or that candy that he gave her once because she managed to create small lightning.

"Master... and what does the body and everything else haa to do with this?"

"Do you think you're attractive Azam?"

That caught her off guard.

Attractive? How so...? In the way that she could use the force and attract things to her or what did he meant?

Palpatine almost rolled his eyes. Of course the girl had no idea what that was. He couldn't wait forever as she stood silent.

"Pretty, Azam. Do you think you're pretty? Don't answer. Just know that men or people are sometimes attracted by women, by their bodies" the whole thing kind of sounded like a horror story to Azam.

She hugged herself.

"To your face... your lips, I know that some of the troopers think you're pretty but wouldn't dare to talk to you because of who you are, and that's the test. For you, and for them."

She felt uncomfortable, trying to guess which of the troopers or soldiers or whoever had seen her was thinking of... talking to her, or whatever, because she feared there was something else.

"Yes... master" she mumbled.

"This is one of the most important parts of being a Sith, Azam. Seduction is one of our greatest weapons so, don't fail."

"I won't master". She was more convinced this time.

The whole way she walked to the hiding spot, she repeated to herself.

I'm a Sith, I'm a Sith, I'm a Sith. She was proud to be, and wished to reach the highest level of power and knowledge, she wabted her grandfather to rule the galaxy and wanted her revenge.

She was so concentrated on that, that she didn't even think about the fact that Palpatine knew about the "hiding" place or the troopers thoughts.

A shadow with glowing eyes emerged from the far end of the hiding spot and the troopers stood up, nervous that somehow Palpatine had found them, but as it got closer they noticed it was the girl.

Jilyn wasn't here this time and Azam wasn't sure who this troopers were.

She was about to freeze.

How was she supposed to talk to one of them and convince them?

They think I'm pretty. She reminded herself.

She took off her hood and started walking slower, like she was letting them know that as many times before she just came to visit.

She tought about waving at them, but that would be stupid.

So instead she walked to the edge, took of her robe and leaned on the wall as she looked out at the troubled sky.

Somehow this corner of Exegol seemed a little brigther, like there was actually some sun hidden behind the storm.

She caught the attention of some of the troopers, of course.

As Rey started growing they noti ed the girl more and more, and the chnges on her body.

Her shirt and pants, so tight on her skin, and her leaning on the wall like that only made her figure stand out more.

"Let's just go, it's weird that she's here" one trooper said.

"Sure, sure. We can come back later" another agreed.

Slowly they were going away, taling their guns and walking to their actual posts.

But one stayed behind. Really curious abiut the girl, which he could tell was listening to them.

Azam rubbed her forehead, what the hell was she supposed to do if they all went away?

"Do you need anything, my lady?" A voice said.

"Are you talking to me?" Azam turned to look at them.

"Yes... we're the only ones here" I bet he's a guy, Azam tought.

She smiled a little at him and wished that her fangs were not showing right now.

"Why do you always come here?" She turned back to the sky.

"We honestly just want to talk and relax a little without the Emperor noticing" the trooper stood next to her.

"Hmm and how do you relax here?" Azam inquired.

She wanted to punch herself on the face so bad right now...

"Well... you know we-" the trooper started stuttering when Azam freed her hair from her hair style and the lightning made her features stand out more.

"Yeah?" She looked at him with those shining eyes. They were captivating as they were scary, there was a dangerous beauty to the girl. The trooper tought.

"Mm we- we talk and mmm play games" he turned his face.

"What about the helmets? Do you keep them on at all times?" Azam pushed.

"Most of the times..."

"Take it off" he was taken aback by her.

"Come on, there's no one else here and I assume that it's not very comfortable to have them on."

He knew he was risking it but... she seemed interested in him? what the hell. Anyways, he could always tell the others his adventures with the Emperor's granddaughter.

Azam was a little surprised to see a guy, maybe in his twenties under that helmet. He had short brown hair and tanned skin.

He smiled at her.

"What did you imagine me like?" He asked taking a step towards her.

"I don't know. But you are good looking" she said.

She tried not to show how nervous she was when he started walking closer to her.

"You don't talk to anyone besides Palpatine, do you?" He inquired. Azam didn't like his disrespect, calling the emperor Palpatine like they were friends.

"I'm talking to you, it's fine by me" she looked him in the eye.

Those eyes sent shivers down his spine.

Azam could feel it, and decided that she had him.

She took a step towards him and offered a side smile.

"I wonder... since you train so much, you must be strong right? You're very tall... good looking" she started circling him.

The trooper forgot who she was for a second, too focused on her words towards him and felt the need to take her hand and stop her.

"I think you're even more good looking" he said, twisting his body to be face to face with her.

She smiled.

"Come with me..." she murmured.

He seemed puzzled.

"Where?"

"To my room" his eyes opened wide and she feared that she had missinterpreted him and he was going to leave.

"The Emperor is going to see us" he said after a while.

"I know the way" she said.

The guy nodded and they went to get their things, then she guided him.

How is my mastwr supposed to know that I did it if he isn't watching? Azam wondered.

And what was she supposed to do once they were in her bedroom? Could she just kick him out?

"This way" her door was visible now.

She opened it and the guy stepped in with her.

From outside you could think this were just more rocks, like their room to sleep, but it was big inside and she had a lot more things that the troopers had.

"Nice place" he said, he stood next to her.

"Thanks" she was thinking of what else to say when the trooper put his helmet away and grabbed her by the arms to pull her close and kiss her.

She pushed him away after a moment and blinked in confusion.

What?... what was that? Was he trying to bite her or something?

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" The guy exclaimed.

"What are you doing?" She asked, her voice had gone up a pitch.

"What do you think? You brought me here!"

"Ye- yes but..."

"What the hell? You're just a stupid kid. Don't you dare say a word about this!" He yelled at her, he took his helmet and pushed her away to get out.

Azam was still confused.

"What the hell had just happened?"

She decided to get out and tell her master about it.

First Order SShip

"Commander, we're close to Jambu" Hux said to Kylo.

"Good, we need to land a little far from the city and I'll take a transportator from there."

"How long should we wait for you Sir?" Hux asked.

There would be nothing he loved more than just abandoning Kylo here, or anywhere to be honest.

"I'll let you know when the transaction is complete" he said and left.

Hux hid his disgust as he turned to instruct the admirals.

Exegol

Palpatine had explained to Azam what the trooper tought she wanted to do, and that he had kissed her and other things that Azam was still processing and wasn't sure what to think about.

"No matter what, you had success on your mission" he said.

"He told me not to tell anyone" Azam murmured.

"It doesn't matter Azam. We can kill him if you want to, you can do whatever you want with him. Never let nobody intimidate you. I'm the most powerful person and then... it's you so, you can get rid of him." Palpatine really didn't care.

"Yes, master"

"Remember about the price Azam?" She nodded and her face lit up a little.

This could be good or bad, but she couldn't help but get excited.

"I'm giving you a mission, out of Exegol" her mouth opened in surprise.

The last time she had been outside of Exegol she had gone to Dagobah, which in her opeinion was just changing a dark and stormy planet for another.

"What's my mission master?"

"You must use your seduction to get me information about the resistance"

Azam's features hardened ince she heard the word resistance.

"Apparently they're planning something and we have to protect the First Order, understood?"

"Yes, master"

Palpatine was proud of her, in this moment she looked like a beast ready to attack.

"My guards will go with you, to Jambu and the people who you can get the information from would be in a restaurant, which once again my guards will take you"

"I'm bringing that information, Master" Azam said standing up and bowing her head, then putting her hood on.

Jambu

"Tell the Commander we're here" Hux told a trooper.

"I already know, prepare my transportator and don't move from here" Kylo said walking past hux and walking towards the exit.

Jambu seemed like a boring planet, not much sun, lots of trees and small villages.

This would be the easiest job he had ever done for Snoke.

He put on his mask and started walking down the ramp.

\------------  
What do you think? Azam and kylo will cross paths? ☻ I' m very excited.


	11. 9. Jambu

What a stupid name for a planet. Azam tought.

Jambu.

It sounded like something she would name the ants on Exegol.

(Am I roasting my poor capability of coming up with planets names? Yes, I am.)

Apparently this place actually had sun and she wondered how that would feel, in her skin, her eyes... what would this place look like...?

She sat with her feet over a table and played with her knife as they made their way to Jambu.

Six guards were with her, not counting the two piloting the ship, all dressed in red from head to toe.

She whished for a moment that Jilyn was there with her... she hadn't seen her in a long time.

The clothes she was wearing today were the strangest and most uncomfortable thing she had ever worn in her life.

They were shorts... as a trooper said.

Azam knew that she had gotten many stares when she made her way to the ship, even if most of the people on Exegol wore masks.

Her grandfather had wished her luck and remembered her that she needed to get the information, then let her go.

"Miss Palpatine, we'll be arriving soon. May I suggest you leave your weapons here?" One guard approached her.

"Make sure we land far from the city, I don't want anyone following us" Azam answered.

She would not leave her weapons behind. Who did that soldier thought he was? He should be focusing on his damb job, which included no one knowing the way to Exegol.

Even she didn't know it.

"We're here"

"I know" the ship had stopped and Azam walked close to the door.

"Miss Palpatine, I suggest you put your hood on, the sun might burn your eyes a little" A different soldier said.

She thought about it... but secretly she wanted to feel it, even if it hurt.

It may remind her of Jakku and her life with her parents. It didn't mean that she liked that time or wished to go back to being Rey... but as her grandfather would say, it was okay to feel.

And she wanted it.

"I'll do once we're closer to the city" she answered and side smiled at him, letting her fangs be visible.

The soldiers almost took a step back.

Azam fixed her clothes and made sure that she had her lightsaber as she waited for the platform to go down.

She felt uncomfortable with her chest and legs exposed, but at least her robe covered her a little.

"I want two of you walking close to me and the others just secure the perimeters, understood?" She didn't even look back as she said it.

Walking down the ramp she first felt the warm on her feet and slowly it crept high up her body.

Filling her with yellow soft rays of sun.

"Wow" she mumbled, stopping for a bit to take everything in.

The sun was high in the sky but as it was a bit late it didn't burn her eyes, she could see trees! More alive ones than the ones in Dagobah and some villages.

There was noise and color everywhere... so much life.

She closed her eyes for a moment, calling on the force, feeling every single thing in this planet, dead and alive, in the surface and hiding in the depths.

She was excited.

"Come on, we'll miss the informant!" Rey called for them and started jogging towards the villages.

"High Peak Restaurant" she read from the small sign above the door of the place.

From the name she had imagined something big, but this place was kind of small in her opinion and looked like a very big house.

There were tables all over the place and people having conversations, there was something called a bar in the middle of the room and crowds of people around different tabmes where they seemed to be playing.

She took off her hood and opened some of the buttons of the robe so her clothes were more visible.

Azam had no idea who she was looking for.

Palpatine had only told her that there would be someone and that she would know but... honestly she was clueless.

Looking around the room and walking to the bar she felt something weird, something she hadn't felt in years, like a presence... she felt nervous and excited at the same time and she had no idea why.

Focus! She reprimanded herself.

Whatever those feelings were she could figure them out later... right now she needed to find this person.

"I want... whatever he's having" Azam said taking a seat at the bar and nodding towards the man beside her.

"I don't think you can handle that kid" the man behind the bar told her.

Azam raised her brow and pursed her lips.

"Did I ask? Just give it to me" she couldn't deny that she had put a little extra effort in her words so the man would have to do whatever she said, but still flashed her fangs at him to give him some motivation.

Azam made a little stick she had found spin on the bar until the men slammed a small glass of something half green half red in front of her.

Instead of leaving, the man leaned back, waiting for her to try it.

Azam raised the thing to her lips and almost gagged when a strong smell hit her nose.

Maybe she should have asked what the hell was that.

She took a sip and her throath burned, her eyes watered and she wasn't sure that she'll be able to swallow it.

But the man was still looking at her, so she did.

"Don't you got work to do?!" She blurted.

The man snickered a little but went to another edge to take more orders.

When he wasn't looking Azam coughed and coughed.

"Are you okay Miss?" A soldier appeared at her side.

"Wha- what are you doing?! Go away!" Azam hissed at him.

They would get attention and ruin everything, or so she tought because no one was really looking at them.

"But are you okay?"

"I am, I am, now. Go away!"

She looked at the drink again, the colors had mixed creating a weird grey bubble in the middle, it reminded her of Exegol's storms.

It... doesn't smell that bad, and it actually has a sweet taste... I could finish it.

Azam thought and so she downed the whole thing.

This time had felt better.

She looked around the place once more.

They all seem like regular human or alien people... she thought.

"Another one!" She called raising her glass to the bartender.

She could drink while she waited for whoever to show up.

Jambu   
High Peak Restaurant secret back room

"When are they planning to do this?" Kylo asked.

He was glad he had decided to keep his mask on, the girl he was talking to seemed to concrentrate more because of her fear.

"I don't know the exact date, but it will be in two months, the east camp." This girl had withe lips and some white and blue spots on her skin that made Kylo distracted.

Actually he had been feeling distracted for a while now, but he wasn't sure why.

"Remind me how do you know all this stuff"

"I work as a spy for the First Order" she shrugged.

"And you're going back to that... Rebel base then?" That Rebel base... he was thinking about his mom and his dad, subtly looking for the smallest hint of how they were.

"We don't have a base, we travel in ships at the moment"

"We?"

This caught the girl off guard.

"There's only we and them. The First order and the resistance, be sure not to get confused on which side you are at" His voice was harsh as he explained this to the girl, and for the first time since they started talking she didn't look so relaxed.

"I'm loyal to the First order" she hurried to say.

"We'll need an update for the exact date of the attack soon"

"Of course" Kylo felt like this meeting was over, he had everything Snoke wanted.

"Are- are you the Jedi killer?" The girl asked timidly.

"What does it matter?"

"Is it true that you ended all the Jedi?, people in the resistance say that you were trained by one..." Kylo didn't want to know how that would continue.

With his hand on a fist he managed to choke the girl, make her somewhat silent.

"You just focus on giving us more information!" He hissed and then let her go, getting out of the room.

H.P.R tables near the bar

"I think I got it" Azam said taking the dice some kid was offering her.

To be honest Azam had drink two or three of those glasses and had been feeling a little strange, this kid went to talk to her at the bar and then invited her to play.

He was standing beside her and kept one hand on her waist.

Azam knew the whole situation was a little strange but didn't do anything about it.

Even if she felt dizzy and confused she was still looking around for that person.

Suddenly her eyes captured a weird action.

There was a guy standing next to one of the gaming tables, how could she not recognize it before?

"A trooper" she mumbled.

His posture gave him away. Even if he was dressed as a regular person, his hand on his leg sometimes clenched and unclenched like he was looking for his gun.

"I have to go" she mumbled as she could to the guy.

"But wait!"

She followed the trooper's gaze.

The back of the restaurant, where a giant paint was placed.

"What's behind that?" Azam said, using her confuzed strength.

"I don't know, I'm waiting"

"Waiting for who?"

"The commander"

This guy was impossible.

Azam told him to go for a walk and she slowly made her way near the paint.

In her state it was just impossible to find a way to whatever was behind it.

"Are you okay?" She heard a womans voice.

She turned around to find a girl with white lips and white and blue spots on her body.

Somehow she knew she had found what she was looking for.

"Could you take me outside, please?" Azam faked a more strained voice.

"Come" the girl took her arm and walked outside the restaurant with her.

"Are you okay?"

"That man... he has been following me and, I don't feel well" she pointed at one of her soldiers and indicated them not to move.

"I know somewhere to hide" the girl said and slowly directed her to the back of the restaurant, walking from outside and getting into a door Azam hadn't seen before.

As soon as the girl closed Azam took her saber from her belt, her moves were a little dumb but still, she managed.

"You can stay here as long as you-"

"Don't move" Azam activated her lightsaber and put it close to the girls neck, her eyes glowing.

"Who are you?" She said 7 her palms.

"You are the one who knows about the Resistance, aren't you, huh? You dumb?" Azam's words were a little... odd.

What the hell am I saying? I shouldn't have drink that.

"I don't know what you're talking about"

"I'm getting this information one way or another" she said moving the lightsaber a little closer.

Honestly the other girl could have played dumb for a little more or come up with something to run away, but the girl in front of her terrified her, drunk as she was, she reeped her out even more than the guy who had visited her before.

"I've already told Snoke's messenger about the plan"

"You what?"

"Snoke-"

"Shut up. I don't care who you have said this to, you're now telling it to me"

Woods near H.P.R

"What do you mean he's lost?" Kylo roared into his radio.

"He's not on the restaurant anymore so another trooper took the transportator to go and look for him" Hux explained.

"Then we'll leave them here, I have the information. Let's go."

"Supreme Leader Snoke hates leaving traces behind, that transportator has secret information as well as our past coordinates" Hux insisted.

"I'll give your stupid team thirty minutes to solve this, after that we're leaving!"

Kylo punched a tree near him and made a whole on it's surface.

He could almost swear Hux had something to do with this troopers dissapearance.

He heard foodsteps coming and hid behind a tree, high on the mountain but not that far so he could see whoever was coming.

There was always the possibility that the girl from before had really switched sides and alerted the Resistance of his presence.

To him the steps sounded clumsy and the person seemed lost, making noises while he or she stepped on the dried leaves, he also heard some mumbling.

Then he saw her.

A stumbling girl came out of the other side of the woods, closer to the restaurant, she was not too tall and had few clothes on, he couldn't see her face because she had a hood on.

There was also... something weird, something inside Kylo was trying to reach that girl, his heart skipped a beat and he reprimanded himself.

She's drunk. He assumed for the way she handled herself.

He wasn't sure what he was supposed to do.

The girl kept walking and tripped with something.

"Son of a bitch!" She exclaimed, standing from the ground and throwing the guilty rock for her fall far away.

Kylo almost laughed.

He must've made a sound because she turned towards his direction and held a lightsaber on her hands.

A double saber to be more precise.

He had never seen one before, only heard stories of them.

It was red and glowed with intensity, the same intensity he could feel coming from her.

"Come out because I'm killing you anyways" she said spinning the saber around, Kylo admired her swift moves, she was certainly used to that weapon because there was no resistance or mistake in her moves, even if she drunk.

"I'm probably threathening a damn squirrel" she mumbled and laughed. 

Who are you? Kylo thought.

It was unusual to see people with lightsabers, sure some people collected them, but they had heard enough stories of the Jedi killer to risk playing around with them.

Also... it was red, only a Kyber crystal turned by a Sith or someone with knowledge of the dark side could so something like that.

Should he get closer to her?

She surrendered and sat on the ground turning off the saber.

Azam's head was spinning as she sat down.

She held her stomach and kneeled adopting a weird hugging position, she had never felt this sick in her life. She placed her forehead against the ground and squeezed her eyes, she felt like throwing up, but she didn't want to.

In her mind she repeated the information she had gattered in fear that somehow, because of whatever was going on with her she would forget it.

"Sir, we've got the troopers, we're ready to go as soon as you get back to the ship" Kylo heard Hux's voice in his ear.

"Coming" was his only short answer.

The girl wasn't moving and he was still curious, besides... she could be hurt or something.

It's not my problem, he mumbled.

Kylo started making his way back to the ship as slow and silent as he could, taking small steps and looking back once or twice because of the girl.

She still didn't move.

"Oh no" Azam murmured and recognized that she wouldn't have a choice but to throw up.

Kylo heard a scream and the girl moved a little, panting.

What the hell was wrong with her?

He missed a rock on his way for looking back and the rock started going down hill.

Azam's instincts lit up like a fire, and holding her stomach she got up fast and came close to where she had heard the noise.

"Who's there?" she said. She was biting her lip trying to comfort herself.

As she took a deep breath in she realized something that she had felt since she arrived on Jambu... and this time it was stronger.

Kylo didn't move as Azam scanned the trees with her eyes.

He started moving slowly again.

Azam heard it loud and clear. Palpatine had trained her to kill, almost literaly... her instincts were trained to fight, to notice details as small or silent as the leaves moving with the wind.

"Got you!" Azam exclaimed as she jumped and landed a few steps before Kylo.

He halted. Wasn't she almost dying on the floor a few seconds ago?

Kylo dodged her and passed her, iniciating a chase between them.

It was frustrating for the two of them, Kylo because he couldn't reach her, or punch her, or get rid of her, and Azam because he just didn't stop, he seemed strong, she couldn't see his face and he wasn't stopping.

All the jumping around was making her dizzy.

"Stop!" she managed to get in front of him again.

Only this time her feet slipped on a piece of soft ground and she lost her balance, she went a little down hill.

Kylo should have taken advantage of this and leave but... he couldn't so he slid down to where she had ended rolling.

He was tempted to extend his hand to her but instead he got close.

"Are you-"

"Who are you spying me for?!" Azam shouted at him and this time she had her lightsaber.

Tired of the situation Kylo also activated his.

Azam gasped in awe.

A red lightsaber and also... he had dodged her for so long.

"You're a Sith..." she mumbled but didn't back down.

Slowly she stood up and they circled each other.

Half of her face was still covered by the hood while Kylo's face was fully covered by his mask.

He was the one to attack first.

"Who are you?!" he demanded.

She was quick for someone so small.

She spun her saber around hiting some trees and almost hurting Kylo's arm.

That made him more alert.

A combat started between them but weirdly enough they noticed that they weren't relaly trying to hurt each other, only attack.

Only test the other as they were both so surprised.

Then Azam lost her focus for a moment and Kylo hit her arm with the lightsaber.

"Ouch!" she hissed a bad word as she held herself up by the trunk of a tree, her head was spinning and she slid down to the ground.

In an impulse Kylo kneeled down to check her.

"Don't touch me!" Azam roared, moving her head upwards to raise her chin and the movement made the hood fall.

Kylo stepped back like the sigth of her burned him.

That face... he had seen her before.

He took off his mask just to make sure he was actually seeing her.

And it was time for Azam to exclaim, she stood up.

They both started breathing faster, only being able to scan each others faces.

The girl he saw on his dreams, and the boy she had seen on her... visions?

None could believe the other was real.

"Who are you?" Azam whispered.

The force didn't care about names or introductions... they force that lived inside Kylo somehow also lived inside Azam... and in this moment connected them stronger than ever.

Azam felt like she could fight forever, she felt stronger, she felt his surprise and worry.

Kylo felt her strength, her curiosity and over all... there was darkness, a type of darkness he had only felt in Snoke. The girl had to be a Sith... but it couldn't be.

Azam took a hesitant step forward, she swallowed hard as she thought about reaching out her hand or not, to touch him.

Kylo would never forget her hazel eyes.

He took a little step forward too, maybe they could meet in the middle.

But then... Azam felt something else. There was the comfortable darkness she had known all her life but... inside him, there was also light.

"Traitor" she murmured and stopped walking.

"Wh-"

"There she is! she's with someone, hurry!" they heard a man yell.

One of the soldiers had found her.

The last thing she wanted was for this traitor to hear her name or to follow them, so, even if it hurt she turned around and ran towards the guard. Hoping that he wouldn't follow.

"Move! there's a spy! we have to go!" She knew that that would get them going, so as she ran they were behind her and in some minutes they got to the ship.

"Who's the spy? are you okay?" They hurried to ask.

"I'm fine, hurry up!" She wanted to leave this place now.

Kylo decided not to follow her and instead went to his own ship.

He didn't even got her name.

WHat did she mean by traitor? Traitor to who? Who was she?

The tripulation could sense that their Commander was in a worst mood than he used to so no one commented on him being late and soon they took off.

All the way to Exegol Azam kept pressing the troopers to check that no one was following them and when they finally got there she collapsed.

The last thing on her mind was the tall boy she had seen today, his lightsaber with an odd design and the feeling... of familiarity and comfort she had gotten from him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> KNOW! I KNOW! It's not much and you wanted them to actually interact or something, and believe me I just want them to actually meet too! but, Azam's still kind of young and ten years younger than Kylo... so she needs to be a little older.
> 
> That is going to happen soon, very soon, but I just want to build up the moment more so that when they get together the next time... well you know, we all enjoy it.
> 
> I hope you like it and will continue reading as the characters are soon going to really cross paths and Palpatine will do more stuff.


	12. 10. The rule of two

"Two there should be. No more, no less. One to embody power, the other to crave it."  
―Darth Bane

Exegol

"I know what I saw master, this can't be!" It was the next day from her mission since when Azam got to Exegol yesteday she was out.

Palpatine didn't even got that mad at her for being drunk, he only asked her if she had gotten the information.

"You weren't on all your senses Azam" Palpatine declared.

Even if Azam was kneeled in respect she was still daring him with her eyes.

"Master..."

"Azam, you've read thousands of times the books of the Sith. There are no other Sith's but you and me."

They shouldn't be. As the rule stated, only two shall exist. One master and one apprentice, but still... then she remembered what she had felt before, inside the guy.

Conflict.

There was light.

"Is it possible... that jedi's still exist, Master? One different from Luke Skywalker?"

"We're not having this discussion right now Azam, I didn't punish you for your mistakes but if you keep pressing with this nonesense then I will."

"But master, if I could remember the message then I swear, I reallys wear to you master that there was someone in those woods with a red lightsaber... and he had control of the force."  
Azam was about smack her fist on the ground.

"Enough! yes, maybe you saw someone Azam, but that doesn't turn them into Siths. I don't wan to hear more about this. You didn't even completed the task as I ordered you to, getting drunk and threatening someone isn't seduction, in fact you didn't even use it. Perhaps you are a little too young..." Palpatine looked down at her and in that moment she felt minuscule.

Suddenly the statues of the Emperor seemed bigger, and the crow made her feel trapped, and Palpatine's empty eyes... they sent chills down her spine. Azam gulped in fear for a second.

"Master"

"Until you prove to me that you've grown up you can't go out again Azam."

"I'm sorry, I completed the task. Please, Master, give me another chance" She didn't care where she was sent to, as long as she had another chance to see other places. Exegol did feel like home to her but... there was a part of her that wanted to get to know all the galaxy.

"I think you don't do well in crowds Azam, and you don't think before you act. Yesterday was your first and last mission" 

No, no! What hurt her more wasn't the fact that she had to stay here, but that he felt like she had failed him.

Azam then kneeled with both knees and bowed down, her head to the ground as she pleaded for another chance.

"My intention was never to fail you or dissapoint you. If I insist in this is because I don't want anything to get between you and the galaxy. Emperor, I beg you for another chance." Azam felt ashame when a tear rolled down her face, towards her forehead.

Palpatine made the slightless smile as he saw the state of the girl.

He loved her obedience.

But there was some thruth to his words. The kid started drinking and lost control because she was afraid to be in such a large group of people. She had had minimal interaction with no one but him.

She was stupid in the sense of fulfilling any social task.

Another year confined in Exegol, allowing her to talk to that little trooper friend of her and slowly forcing her into small crowds would help her with that.

After all Palpatine did want his own spy.

"Next year, we'll see if you can go out" he then sentenced.

Azam dug her nails into her palms not to cry anymore. She stood up and bowed, then left.

The girl was gonna find out about Kylo Ren eventually, he had contemplated it, and it was part of his plan. What would the Dyad be helpful for if not?  
But not yet. They shouldn't meet just yet.

He was a genious, he thouht.

Azam was right about the rule of two, but you see. Snoke is nothing more but an extension of Palpatine himself and Kylo Ren had a piece of Azam soul, her force inside him.

They were like mirrors.

Palpatine standing next to Azam and on their reflection Snoke standing next to Kylo.

Exactly two. No more.

First Order Star destroyer

"I assume you've already informed the east camp about this" Snoke said.

"I have"

"Your mission was somehow a success then. Congratulations on being capabl of remembering a few lines" Snoke was teasing Kylo.

He had been angry since he came back from Jambu.

He couldn't stop thinking about the girl, there was something weird about her. He had contemplated telling Snoke about her but he was pretty sure that he would only laugh in his face.

"I've also told the other camps to be alert, the last thing we want is to run out of stormtroopers or our army" Kylo said.

"Where's that thing of yours?" 

"What?"

"Your imitation of Vader's mask"

Kylo didn't answer.

The thruth was that he didn't feel like wearing it right now.

"Well then, I'll wait for your reports of when you test the star destroyer" That made Kylo lift his head.

"Is it ready?"

"General Hux told me that by tomorrow it should be ready, and you'll have my permission to end the suporters of the republic, which as you know are suporters of the resistance."

Kylo controlled his thoughts not to go to his parents.

"Of course, master."

WIithout another word Snoke's hologram dissapeared and Kylo stormed to his room.

The reality was that he had been mad since that girl left yesterday.

He needed answers.

Deep down he knew that the real thing was that bothering him was the fact that she had called him a Sith and a traitor.

Had he became a Sith yet? he couldn't be sure. He felt constantly mad at himself for still dreaming about his family and having a feeling like he had lost something, like a piece was missing.

The girl... she had gotten inside his head.

He remembered how she felt, her power to be more exact.

There was no light side of her. Only darkness.

About the traitor part... what was she talking about?

Who was her and what was she doing there? of all places? Where had she gotten that lightsaber from?

Maybe she was like his knights. Able to control the force but on a superficial level... that theory didn't convince him.

He'll have to investigate by himself.

"Grandfather..." Kylo sighed running his hand over the pieces of his grandfathers mask.

This time there was no answer for him.

Exegol

After weeks of looking through the books at her disposition Azam had found no clues about the guy, or more siths.

She had learned to take her punishment and listen even more to what Palpatine told her to do.

One year... talking about something Palpatine didn't want to hear had cost her another year locked on Exegol.

At least she had her usual routine.

Wake up, train, eat, train, train, a little break, study, train, sleep, repeat.

Azam noticed that lately she had been able to ran into Jilyn more and chat with her.

And also noticed that sotimes Palpatine's trainings had started to incorporate a little "mission" before she attacked.

If she had only done her job well then Palpatine would have never gotten mad.

In the end she didn't even find out what Palpatine did with the information but hoped that at least it was useful.

Sometimes, at night, she would remember the guy with the weird lightsaber.

"Traitor" she whispered.

She despised him for being weak. She still didn't understand what his purpose or existense was at all, but everytime she thought about the light inside him... she trained even harder.

Got stronger, remembered her Sith teachings and called more for the dark, afraid that somehow meting him had swiped some of it away.

The light side was commonly used by the Jedi's, and they all had to be gone.

There was no doubt in her mind that she belonged to the dark and had no plans on it ever changing.

First Order star destroyer

The weapon turned out not to be ready in the following days, nor in weeks, so Kylo still had time before he had to inevitably face his parents and kill them for serving the resistance.

Since his trip to Jambu he hated his weakness more and more, sometimes feeling mad at himself out of nowhere and feeling a push to the dark even stronger than the one he had felt in Dagobah.

He felt like there was a part of his mind pushing him to change, to be strong, to fully embrace his dark side and leave no trace of his past.

It wasn't easy and during his time trying to improve he noticed he got more explosive,more agressive.

Many planets had payed for his rage.

He searched desperately for a source of strength and often he found it on destroying planets.

Snoke still treated him unfair, but Kylo noticed that there was a little respect for him now.

The First Order had gained a lot more territory since Kylo started to change, putting all his efforts on being the Leader the Order needed, the right apprentice. Someone his grandfatehr would be proud of, someone who was coming to get the galaxy.

Today he was back from a tiring day of "negotiating with some rebel groups near the Kady system.

He undressed to get ready for the shower.

As he did he noticed the dried blood on his clothes and his mask. 

His gloves were the worst.

He imagine dthat if he took those pieces and put them in the water everything would turn red.

He could almost smell the metal in blood.

During his shower his mind was crowded of thoughts of where should be his next place to visit.

There wasn't time for wonder anymore, for thinking about the girl or about anything else that didn't have to do with the First Order winning.

Exegol

"Again" 

Azam was tired of this. Her head throbbed from the effort and she felt like she was going to pass out any moment now.

Still, she complied.

"You're going to fire you arms towards the rock on your left" Azam commanded.

There was a group of twenty stormtroopers standing before her, and none of them moved.

"Come on!" screaming didn't convince them either.

"Again, Azam. Speak louder, with intention. Come on, you've alreadyd one it with groups of five people.

She couldn't help but huff. Controling five people was nothing compared to controlling twenty.

"Master..."

"Again!"

Azam couldn't even talk loud now.

"You're going to fire your arms towards the rock on your left!" once again, nothing.

She almost cried, and wondered if she did as tears of sweat rolled down her face and neck.

Today Jilyn had had the bad luck of being aroun when the Emperor called for the group to join so Azam could train and even if she had tried to keep her distance she felt bad looking how Azam was battling.

"How are you supposed to help me if you can't take twenty people Azam?! They're nothing! come on."

Azam wanted to do it. She really did but her mind was too tired for now.

She bit the inside of her mouth as she was used to do when she was too tired. She reached this point during almost all her trainings which is why her mouth was constantly bloody.

She closed her eyes, trying to feel the force in the room and using her to her advantage.

"You're going to fire you arms towards the rock on your left" her voice trembled a little from the effort but her orders were finally answered.

"I did it! I- I..." she was feeling dizzy.

"The other twenty, come here!" Palpatine called and twenty more joined the crowd.

"Azam..." Jilyn murmured as low as she could, she had taken a step in her direction withouth noticing.

Was everyone here blind or why wasn't the Emperor stopping, that poor girl was about to collapse.

"Give them the same comand" Palpatine instructed.

Azam swallowed hard and took a wider stance. She took deep breaths as she prepared her mind for the even heavier load of work this would take her.

"Yo- you're going to- "

"What are you doing?! come on" Palpatine was getting impatient. With his force he made Azam turn in his direction, he took her arm and squeezed hard.

"At this rate you'll never be a powerful Sith! look at you. Pathetic. Show me your power Azam!"

Azam hated when he shouted at her. It made her feel stupid and she hated it.

It made him bigger, stronger in her eyes and made her less.

"I'm tired! I'm not doing this!" she screamed trying to set free.

"You are!"

"I'm not! I'm going! I don't want to do this!" 

The girl hadn't crossed Palpatine in years.

"You are doing it, because I am the only one who give orders here! So if I say do it, you do it!" He dug his nails on her arms as he shook her and then to her surprise he slapped her.

The sound of Palpatine's cold hand gitting her soft cheeck traveled through all the throne room and send Azam to the ground.

When she turned to look at him there was a small filament of blood dripping down her mouth and her eyes stung from crying.

"Get up!"

She slowly did.

"Now, do it." His patience was gone and Azam felt more scared of him than she had felt in years.

"You're- y-" her voice was failing her.

"Use your anger"

She had lots of that at the moment, and pain. So she used them.

"You're going to fire your arms towards the rock on your left" Her nails had already drawn blood from her palms, but at least it worked.

As the gun shots hit the rock, Azam collapsed on the ground.

"Someone take her to the medical rool and give her something to wake up" Palpatine exclaimed giving her body one unamused look and going away.

Jilyn took a step forward to take care of Azam, once inside the medical room she took off her helmet and examined the poor girl.

Of course Jilyn had had a hard time growing up in the stormtrooper camps but... she couldn't imagine someone having such a burden and suffering as the litle kid lying on the stretcher right now.

First Order star killer

"Supreme Leader Snoke wants to talk to you Sir" admiral Jand informed Kylo as soon as he got inside the ship.

"Tell him I'll call him later"

He could only give two steps before the imponent image of Snoke covered his way.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" He roared.

All the admirals and troopers present straightened up and we're thankful for not being Kylo in this moment, althought none could swear that nothing was going to happen to them.

Hux seemed to be the only one smiling.

Kylo clenched his fists.

"I'm back from a mission"

"You're doing nothing! that's what you're doing. A mission... your missions mean nothing!" Snoke continued screaming.

"I shut down another rebel cam-"

"Did you know that while you were out there playing with your lightsaber, the fucking rebels found one of our weapon factories!? Did you? and they took them!"

"I... didn't know that" Kylo admited.

"This morning I informed Commander Kylo Ren of suspicious activity near our biggest weapon factory, but he insisted on coming to this rebel base" Hux said.

"You didn't tell me it was this factory!"

"He even told us that you had sent him here" Hux added.

Kylo force chocked him and slammed him on the floor, only to be slammed on the floor by Snoke.

"Show your fucking face as you tell me all this nonesense!" Snoke exclaimed.

Kylo took off his mask only to rebeal some blood dripping from his nose and a filament of blood coming from his mouth.

"I said that we had to eliminate this camp, but I didn't know that the rebels were so close to the factory"

"What good exactly do you think you're doing erasing little camps of four stupid people that are with the resistance huh? Now you need to get those weapons back and stop acting like a child with your stupid plans!"

Kylo didn't say he was sorry or try to come up with more excuses, instead he stood there taking all Snoke had to say.

"General Hux! Do your damn job as a general and stop making me regret giving you this job! You two idiots have a much bigger threat now!"

"I've managed to reduce the number of rebels significantly" Kylo argued.

"I don't care! If you really want to end the rebel scum what you should do is find General Organa and kill her! she's the one giving the orders! When the star destroyer is ready we'll take care of whoever dares to still call themselves resistance!"

His screams made Kylo hurt even more when realizing that the thruth was simple as that.

Killing his mother was the answer.

"Your most important job right now is get those weapons back and finishing the star destroyer. Stop messing around like idiots and do your job!" Snoke screamed at them and dissapeared.

"What are you looking at?! Get searching that!" Kylo screamed and took off to his room.

Once there he took out all of his rage, smashing his lightsaber at many of his things, fihgting satisfaction on breaking things, just like he felt.

He thought he was doing something to help, he really did, and all Snoke did to thank him was ridiculing him in front of everyone.

He decided to switch arms and hit the wall with his knuckles instead.

In her sleep on the medical room Azam moved her hand to sooth the other and had a hurt expression on her face but didn't wake up.

It had been a hard day for the dyad.

Palpatine supervised his workers as they made the Final Order, which grew more and more each day, when he got a call from Snoke.

He filled him in all the details from his other apprentice.


	13. 11. Blood

"Master, the resistance doesn't know where Luke is either but they've recruited a famous pilot around the galaxy, Poe Dameron, to get information about Skywalker’s location." Azam bowed her head as she told the information to Palpatine.  
"Any information on where the rebel base is at?" he asked.  
"Not yet, but I'll follow the pilot"  
"Clever"  
Azam waited with her hands behind her back to say her next words.  
"I may be out for a long-time Master, I want to be very careful about not giving myself away. My contact told me to meet tomorrow and he'll tell me where the pilot is going to.”  
"As long as you keep informing me you can stay out Azam. You are dismissed for now. Good job."   
"Thank you, master." Rey bowed once more and then walked away to her bedroom.

She had missed her bed so much, when she had missions she could be out for days or weeks.   
Azam kicked her boots off to relax for a while before she went to her desk and wrote all her discoveries down on her notebook.  
It took two years for Palpatine to let her go out again, and her growth through fifteen to sixteen had been the hardest for her so far, but she got out stronger than ever.  
She was thankful that Palpatine had been so hard on her and made her earn his permission to go out, because when she did, she came face to face with a difficult world to live in.  
Bad things had happened to her once she started going out, but they could have been worst if she hadn't learned her lessons.  
Now she always felt warm coming back to Exegol, with the thunder and lightnings welcoming her, the soft sand under her boots and the respect of her master and the Sith eternals.  
About Palpatine’s respect and trust he had even granted her permission to go out on her 19th birthday earlier this year and didn’t ask where she was going.

She wrote the code name of her informant down  
Viktor  
Is currently in Genove, far from the casinos.   
Has located the Poe Dameron.  
I have to kill him once I get to the pilot.  
Met once with Leia Skywalker.

Skywalker's name was underlined with force, for years her hatred towards the jedi and the family responsible of her parents deaths had only grown stronger.  
She had found many misleading clues about Luke's location in the past and she had followed them with passion only to end up nowhere.  
Azam hadn't even been able to triangulate the rebel base, but she was close.  
She was sure.  
She had multiple pages dedicated to sightings and theories of where they might be and she was pretty sure that she'll find them soon.  
Azam went out to ask a trooper to bring her something to eat.  
She was sure that she wouldn’t be bothered for the rest of the day as she had already made report to Palpatine.   
Her training had finished when she earned her right to go on missions again and only occasionally did Palpatine asked her to fight or something else.  
After eating and taking a shower she prepared her things for her trip tomorrow, she had calculated that she'll have to go for at least a week.  
She was looking for her spare knife on the boxes on the edge of her bedroom when she came across a helmet.  
"Jilyn..." she murmured.  
Her only friend in Exegol or anywhere, her only true friend. Everyone else she had meet on mission were nothing but assets, men or women, they were only for Azam to use and then get rid of.   
She had died on a mission that Palpatine sent her to. Azam didn't know which mission till this day, or how it exactly happened because she was out one day and when she came back, she didn’t see her.  
Later that day a soldier had visited her in her room and silently offered her Jilyn's old helmet with fresh scrapes and blood stains from the battle.  
She cried for a month whenever she saw that helmet, but now she had made her peace with it.  
"I'm closer to finding you, Luke Skywalker" she murmured and sat on the edge of her bed with the helmet still in her hands.

First Order  
"A pilot from the resistance is heading to Jakku to get information about Luke Skywalker’s position.” Kylo informed Snoke confidently.  
He was less of a rebel now, he waited for Snoke to say something and remained strong about his wish on finding Luke.  
That had been his greatest growth in these years. He was not a child anymore; he was almost thirty years old and hoped to soon have the full control over the First Order.  
In exchange Snoke made a little less fun of him, recognizing that his mind was more centered.  
"If we let them get away a new Jedi order may rise" Snoke warned him.  
"I know master, I won't let it happen." He nodded.  
"There's a slight disturbance in the force, my apprentice, I think you can feel it too."  
"yes, master"  
"We don't have much time Kylo."  
"As soon as we get the map, I'll make sure to end Skywalker."  
"Don't forget the rebels"  
"General Hux is close to finding their location and the weapon is almost ready."  
"Well then, don't ruin it tomorrow" He said as a goodbye.  
Kylo was left alone in the room again.  
He headed to the control room to check on everyone and make they were on the right course.  
"General Hux, are we still on time?"  
"Yes, we'll get to Jakku just in time to intercept the pilot" he answered without looking at him.  
After going through the plan once more he retired to his room to meditate.  
Yes, he wanted to end the Jedi, but this teaching from Luke had always been helpful when he had to prepare his mind before a battle or a mission.

Azam's TIE fighter  
"I'm landing on the usual place in four minutes, be ready."  
"The place is empty" a masculine voice replied.  
"Good"  
When she got down from the ship, he was already waiting for her.  
"Why are you mad now?" He asked when she was close.  
"What are you talking about?"  
"The eyes..." he pointed at them.  
"I'm impatient"  
As Azam was so connected to the dark side her eyes were now gold almost all the time, but it was true that it was even more common that they changed if she got mad.  
"We can't discuss it here, let's go to my house"   
Azam walked beside him but noticed he was limping a little.  
“What did you do?” she asked slowing down just a little so he could catch up.  
“Someone was mad at me for stealing and… they found me- “Azam stopped walking.  
“Here?!”  
“Relax, it wasn’t here and they didn’t follow me” He continued walking. “I checked”.  
This was another reason why Azam had to kill him, she decided. It was too risky to have someone so problematic knowing about her or her plans.

“Has your informant told you where Dameron is heading to?” she asked once they were inside the house.  
It was small and easy disguised with all the mountains and trees.  
“He should in an hour, maximum.” He looked at her and her graceful moves, he had always found Azam attractive, which was one of the reasons, if not the main one why he agreed on giving her information.  
“That’s a lot” she complained taking off her coat.  
She was wearing her usual black pants with a black top and gold and black bracelets adorned her upper arms.  
“You changed your hair…”  
“I’m on a mission, a very important one and I don’t want anyone to match my identity” Her hair was no longer on three buns and her black tone was now matched with carefully blended burgundy highlights.  
A half ponytail made up of many small braids crossing each other kept the hair out of her face.  
“You look pretty”   
Azam ignored the comment and went to the room where he had his monitor.  
She almost rolled her eyes. She knew he found her pretty, she had seduced him into this job in the first place, but it was annoying how he thought she cared about nothing else. It had been a mistake when she allowed him to kiss her a few months ago.  
“I was thinking… I could go with you” Viktor said coming into the room.  
With his though appearance one wouldn’t expect him to follow girls around like a puppy, but he did.

First Order  
“We’ll be there in ten minutes Sir” General Pryde told Kylo.  
“I want two groups to go down and raid the whole village, then I’ll join them.”  
“Very well commander”   
“General Hux, you should have been here, doing your job.” Kylo mentioned noticing that Hux was late.  
It was weird that he came from somewhere else.  
“I was informing Snoke of our current position” he said standing tall and close to Kylo, like daring him to confront him.  
“General Pryde will tell you about the plan” Kylo said hitting his shoulder when he walked out to talk to Phasma.

Viktor’s house  
“You know you can’t come with me Viktor” Azam searched through his files as she waited for his informant.  
“We make a good team and you could use some back up” That made her mad.  
“Exactly why do you think that?” She asked taking a knife from her leg pocket and placing it under Viktor’s chin.  
He laughed nervously and took a step forward.  
Didn’t he feel the knife?  
“Well, I know people and I know how to decipher codes and I don’t want you to be harmed”   
This time Azam did rolled her eyes.  
She could do all those things herself, she knew how to look after herself and if she needed information she could get it somewhere else.  
“Your protection is the last thing I need.”  
“Last month you came to visit with your side bleeding” he took another step forward and Azam didn’t hesitate to press the knife harder against his skin but he wasn’t backing down.  
“And I’m here now, no bleeding, just fine” she hissed.  
“I didn’t mean to offend you, we know you’re strong” He took her hand and moved the knife away from his neck, bending down a little to be close to Azam’s mouth.  
She smiled mischievously, she was about to kill him right there, but then a message came in.  
“We’re heading to Jakku, to the village where Lor San Tekka is in. I repeat, we’re heading to Jakku, to…” A man’s voice said.  
“Jakku, it’s not far from here.” Azam put the knife away and wrote something down on her notebook.  
“Azam… let me join you”  
Viktor took her by the arms and made her stop.  
“Viktor, thanks for all your work during these months, but you can’t go with me” She declared.  
“Azam, I’m going. Even if you say no, I’ll follow you from behind to make sure you’re okay” He said.  
What was wrong with him and wanting to protect her so much?   
Azam took a step forward in his arms.  
“Someone may follow you and ruin everything” she murmured looking at his eyes and then his lips, if only for a second.  
He smiled thinking that he had tricked her into agreeing and bent down.  
“I’ll be careful. This is going to be the best mission so far” he slid his hands to her waist and Azam brought one hand to his neck.  
“And what happens if you’re not and they find me?” she side smiled.  
“I won’t” he said and captured her lips, for a moment Azam followed his kiss and enjoyed it only to reach her knife with her free hand and breaking apart to slice Viktor’s neck.  
His eyes grew big and he tried to say her name but only blood came out of his mouth, some of it had sprayed Azam’s face and chest.  
She held her hand out to him and followed him as he walked back to a wall and collapsed.  
“I really, really thank you the work you did.” She said patting his cheek.  
In Viktor’s last moments he was able to see the ugly buried inside Azam, or maybe it wasn’t buried but he had been blind.  
She wore a big smile and her eyes were not that shiny anymore, she was covered in his blood and somehow didn’t seem bothered at all by it.  
He wanted to curse her.  
“There’s a cabin hidden near the cave, get all the information and then get rid of any evidence.” Azam communicated the guards on Exegol and gave them the coordinates of this place.  
“Goodbye Viktor” she said and then got her things and went back to her TIE.  
Just like every time she had to get rid of her informants, Palpatine’s guards were informed to take care of everything.  
Of course there were whispers about Azam around the galaxy, it was inevitable since she had done many jobs and killed so many people, but at the same time there were barely any proofs that she existed, and she intended to keep it this way.  
She couldn’t leave any loose ends.

Jakku  
The troopers had informed Kylo that they had found Lor San Tekka and he headed that way.  
Two storm troopers were behind him.  
Lor San Tekka had known his parents and Luke many years ago.  
“Look how old you’ve become” Kylo said stopping in front of him.  
The old men was held by two of his troopers as the others pointed their guns at him.  
“Something far worse has happened to you”   
“You know what I’ve come for”  
Kylo desperately wanted that map and he had no time for games when he was so close to get it.  
“I know where you come from. Before you call yourself Kylo Ren” The old man went on.  
“The map to Skywalker, we know you found it, and now you’re going to give it to the First Order.”  
“The First Order rose from the dark side, you did not” Kylo felt tempted to just kill the man and hope that he had hid the map somewhere easy to find it.  
“I’ll show you the dark side.” He firmly stood before him.  
“You may try but you cannot deny the truth that is your family”  
Kylo lost his patience.  
“You’re so right” he said before igniting his saber and slicing through Lor San Tekka.  
The villagers held captive screamed in horror at the sight of such a violent act.  
And someone shot at Kylo, who stopped it in the air by extending his hand.

Just then Azam was arriving on Jakku too, far away from where she had seen a big fire and a ship that belonged to the First Order.  
What were they doing here if she was here too?  
Palpatine didn’t mention that someone else was looking for the map.  
“Fuck…” she murmured getting down of the TIE and searching for a high place to get her binoculars out and examine the situation.  
She saw a pair of stormtroopers dragging someone towards…  
“Kylo” she hissed.  
She had found out a year ago about Kylo Ren, the Jedi Killer, the First Order commander.  
He had been the boy she had collapsed with so many years ago in Jambu. It all felt like a dream to her now and she wasn’t really sure if it happened or not, but since she got to go out in missions again, she found her plans sometimes being clashed by his presence.  
She hated him. One more time, he was on her way.  
She heard him order to put the guy on board and the noticed San Tekka’s body on the floor.  
Kylo had probably killed him.  
That only meant that whoever they were taking to the ship knew where the map was, and he had to be Poe Dameron.  
“Son of a bitch.” Azam cursed getting closer.  
She had to be the one to get the map.  
Why had Palpatine send her on this mission if the First Order was going after it too? She knew that the First Order was meant to serve her master and they informed to him every once in a while, but other than that she knew nothing.  
“Sir, the villagers.”  
“Kill them all” Azam used the commotion to take a last look at the big picture.  
There was one storm trooper who didn’t followed the commands, Lor San Tekka’s belongings were scattered around the fire pit and she could she the marks of where the troopers had dragged Dameron from.  
Think Azam, think.  
She thought the pilot had gone a little too willingly to the ship, besides, he was a pilot. Where was his ship?  
Azam cursed the First Order and waited for them to leave to start searching.  
She didn’t find the ship but she discovered a different trace on the sad.  
One that was far from the village and stopped near here Dameron had stood.  
“A droid…” Azam concluded.  
Maybe a droid or someone else had been by Dameron’s side when he arrived.  
Maybe they knew something about the map… and if not, she had to get the ship.  
The coordinates for the base had to be there.

First Order  
“What do we do with the prisoner, Sir?”  
“Interrogate him” Kylo ordered.

He and Azam would search for clues in their own ways.


	14. 12. Lucky Jakku

"Sir... the prisoner is not talking" A trooper found Kylo to tell him the bad news.

"Aren't you using your methods or what?" He roared.

"we are but... he's still not talking Sir"

Kylo almost rolled his eyes.

This troopers were getting more and more useless.

"I'm gonna have to do it myself then" he cursed and walked to the room where Poe Dameron was held in.

When he entered he saw him knocked out, with a bloody face and clothes.

"I had no idea we had the best pilot of the resistance on board. Comfortable?" Kylo asked.

"Not really" as proud as he was Poe tried opening his eyes and looking straight into the man's... mask.

Kylo was curious, he tought he was the best pilot in the galaxy, how good could this man be to be called the "best" in the resistance?

"I'm impressed" Kylo started and took some steps forward to get close.

"No one had been able to resist the interrogation before" Kylo said.

"You might wanna rethink your technique" Poe jocked.

Kylo didn't have time for this.

He extended his hand and used his powers to search for the map in his brain.

Poe tried to resist and hissed in pain as he felt something invading his head.

"Where is it?" Kylo asked, it would be easier to find if the pilot thought about it.

"The resistance will not be intimidated by you" Poe gasped in response.

"Where. Is. It?" Kylo hissed.

The pilot was really trying hard not to say anything, Kylo could respect that, but he wouldn't lose. After a moment the pilot let out a scream and collapsed, Kylo had found what he wanted.

"It's in a droid. A BB unit" Kylo announced getting out of the interrogation room.

"Well then, if it's on jakku we'll soon have it" Hux said in response.

"I leave that to you" Kylo said and went away.

He had already done what the stupid troopers couldn't, the least they could do was find the damn droid.

Jakku

Azam was still looking for the ship. As the wind blew the sand away, some of the traces had been erased and she had found herself lost and going in circles.

"Fuck this damn planet" Azam said, giving up for a second and sitting down.

It was late at night and she was far from the village where everything had happened, her TIE was not anywhere to be seen and she was tired of bending down to follow the trace.

She laid on her back, looking at the sky. Azam had often done it before, when she was abandoned in Jakku. She extended one of her hands like she was trying to reach the sky.

Her eyes scanned the starts. How did she ended back in this place? She couldn't help but let out a dry laugh.

"Stupid..." she murmured. Of course she remembered how it was, she remembered this sky even after so many years, and the girl she was before... no. She couldn't think about that.

"I'm Azam Palpatine. I'm strong." she remembered herself.

She stood up with determination and pulled out a small flashlight she carried in the pocket of her robe. 

She could do this. She was getting that map.

As it was common in Azam her anger made her connect deeper with the dark side of the force and she let it guide her.

She walked all night, searching for the pilot's ship, only to find it in pieces near the sunrise.

She finished destroying the ship with her lightsaber and a lightning, she knew she was exploding, but she also knew that the she needed that map.

Without stopping she continued her search for the droid.

She had found a clue on the ship, it was a BB unit, so that would help her a little.

Soon she didn't need her flashlight anymore so she put it away. She was getting close to another village, if she remembered well this place was called Niima. Her old "home".

She walked silently on the edges of the village, trying not to draw much attention to herself as she dodged the ships, the slaves, the crowds of people trying to sell parts and other things scattered here and there.

Then... she saw something, a little far from there.

"Found you" she murmured and took her hood off.

She didn't have much experience with droids, but certainly it wouldn't allow her to get too close if it tought she was dangerous.

As Azam got closer she noticed that in fact she had found it. An orange and white BB unit, going around... it seemed lost.

She smiled.

"Hey, are you looking for something?" She shouted getting close.

The tents of the village were too far away for someone to listen to them, but still some people were already aware of the droids presence.

The droid turned around to look at her for a second, but then kept going.

"Hey!" she reached it again.

The droid stopped.

"Are you lost?" Azam tried to put on the kindest expression she could.

The droid didn't move this time.

Yes. Yes. Trust me. Azam cheered internally.

"If you want... I have a ship, we can go there and... I don't know, I'll take you wherever. If you stay here they might sell you or break you into pieces" Azam said.

She smiled once again and slowly started walking, hoping that it would follow, but it didn't.

The droid was going on the oposite direction, she had to take a deep breath not to shoot it with lightning, which was already shining at the tip of her fingers.

"Hey! wait, seriously, I live here, they're animals and won't think twice about it!" She called out.

The droid kept going.

"Come on, you seemed lost, let me help you. Where are you going? What are you looking for?" she asked walking side by side with the droid.

The droid made a little sound.

"What do you mean clasified?"

That sound again.

"And... are you waiting for someone else too?" Maybe if Poe never came back the resistance would, because this droid contained something that they all wanted.

"Not everything has to be clasified my friend. I'll tell you what, we can wait for whoever you're waiting for at my place, okay?" 

The little droid stopped again.

"I'm Dana, what's your name?" She bent down to talk to the droid, this being friendly thing was exhausting. Azam didn't want to risk telling the droid her real name and him telling someone who it was with. Her name was whispered around the galaxy, not by many good people and the last thing she wanted was people coming to get her when she was busy.

"BB-8 okay, we'll my friend, let's go. I promise we'll wait for whoever it is and you'll be safe" Azam gave the droid a little pat, then started walking away from Niima, this time with the droid following her.

In Jakku it had took her a long night to find the BB unit, but outside the galaxy maybe she spent two or three days, if anyone was coming back ofr this thing they should be here soon.

Star desrtoyer

"FN-2187" Kylo said.

"He helped Dameron escape"

"This was his first infraction" Phasma said to Kylo.

"They were headed back to Jakku when we disabled their ship" A commander said.

"They're going back for the droid" Kylo said. He started to pace around a little.

"Snoke said to get the droid but destroy it if we had to" Hux said.

Kylo turned angrily and pointed his finger at him.

"I want that droid!"

"I'm not listening to what you want, I don't care. I follow the Supreme Leaders orders" Hux stood.

"Don't you think your army of traitors is skilld enough to get a damn droid?" Kylo pushed.

"My men are highly programmed, from birth-"

"To commit treason!" Kylo interrupted.

Hux didn't have something to say.

"You better get me that map, or I'll suggest Snoke that we use a droid army and let him know what happened here. Now, move!" 

Kylo dissapeared, going back to his room and checking the map on his wall, writing more things about the resistance he had seen on Poe Dameron's head.

Jakku

"I have tu hurry..." Azam mumbled.

The droid kept saying that whatever it was doing there was classified, but Azam thought about breaking it apart when they got to her ship, maybe she could rewire it or something to get to the map. She was good at those things.

Actually she was good at many things, combat, planning, flying, building... she was thinking about this when she felt a pull on her robe.

"What?" The droid was saying that he saw his friend.

Dam it. Azam cursed on her mind. She couldn't risk going to that person without checking if there was anyone else near.

"I don't think that's your friend, they can't be here so soon, can they?" she tried reasoning.

Her hand went behind her back, to get her knife out of the pocket of her belt. She was willing to half destroy this thing and carry it all the way to her ship if it was necessary.

"Oh, it's stolen..." Okay. That damn thing had already started rolling towards the tents where it saw this stolen jacket.

At the other side of the tents, a man was drinking from what Azam thought was not suppossed to be drank by anyone, he seemed too tired to pay attention to the animal was also drinking water from there. 

Azam felt like throwing up.

She looked around to see if anyone was waiting for him or anything, but apparently he was alone.

The droid electrocuted the man.

"Hey!"

Azam pulled out her knife again, she didn't want to show her lightsaber here, and held it to the mans throath.

"The jacket, where did you get it from?!" She asked.

BB-8 was beside her, ready to shock him again.

"Wait! wait! I'll tell you about it, just ah-"

"BB-8!" Azam said to the droid. 

She noticed the resistance logo on the jacket and had to contain her emotion. One step closer to revenge, even if this man wasn't really part of the resistance, she'll get there. 

"He says this jacket belongs to his master! why do you have it?" Azam asked.

She didn't lower the knife as the man talked.

"Poe Dameron, that was his name right?" He turned to look at the droid.

Poe Dameron... what the hell was going on? Was this then another member of the resistance? Where was Dameron then?

"He was captured by the First Order, I helped him escape but our ship crashed and... Poe didn't make it" Why would he help him escape? Azam wondered.

There was something that this man wasn't telling, also, it they escaped from the First Order...

"We have to go" Azam mumbled to BB-8.

But the droid was already rolling away, the death of his master hurt him.

"What happened to Dameron? and you... where did your ship crashed? It looks like you've been walking for a long time."

She was still keeping an eye on the droid, but needed information from this man first.

"I told you. Our ship crashed and I woke up and... he wasn't there and the ship exploded. I've been walking for hours." He sighed.

"Why did you choose to come to Jakku?" she asked. Maybe putting her knife away might help her get more information, so she did.

"Poe wanted to come back for the droid"

"Well... he says he's on a secret mission, he had been waiting for Dameron. Are you with the resistance?" She asked. 

The man hesitated for just on second and pursed his lips before nodding.

"Yes, yes. I am with the resistance. This is how we look. Some of us, others are different" He said.

Liar. Azam thought.

Whatever this man said was a half lie. Azam suspected he had been with the First Order, until he helped Dameron escape.

"And... what is it that BB-8 has? I've never met the resistance before, I admire you a lot" She smiled.

"Apparently he has a map that leads to Luke Skywalker" The man answered.

She tried to act shocked about this information when she heard the droid saying something.

She turned around and saw it just in time. 

Stormtroopers. Azam knew it was a matter of time before they got here, and she was now carrying two problems.

"Let's go!" she demanded.

"What are you doing? let go!" The man took her hand and started running.

She yanked it away and passed him, they weren't close to her ship now.

Her TIE was too far from here to get there before the Stormtroopers got them.

Azam thought she saw some ships a little far from the tents earlier. Anything would do, and maybe she could get to her ship.

The troopers had started firing and everything was getting destroyed. Sand was flying everywhere.

"Over there! that might do!" She poited at a big ship, it was covered partly by some fabric, but it had to fly.

With a subtle flick of her hand she destroyed one of the TIE fighters behind them.

"That looks like trash!" The man complained.

"But it is what we have, hurry!"

BB-8 was the first to climb inside.

Azam ran to the pilot seat and told the other guy to go to the weapons.

This thing was old but, as Azam had said before, she was good at many things.

She successfully started the engine and the ship started flying.

"Hold on!" she instructed.

She'll have to send someone to get her TIE out of Jakku soon, but she'll have to wait until they were out of here.

Azam was also going to get rid of the man, but for now she could use him to shoot at the troopers.

Finally, she was able to get away from them and they were out of Jakku, she made a jump and they were out of the system. Hopefully they wouldn't be able to track them down.

"Hey! well done! I'm Finn by the way" The man said and Azam could hear him coming up.

"I need someone to retrieve my ship from Jakku, it's like two hours outside of Niima outpost hidden near the dunes. Hurry!" Azam said to the communicator she had on her wrist.

"Hey!" she smiled at... Finn.

"You're a very good pilot..."

"Dana. My name is Dana"

BB-8 thankfully came around. He didn't trust Finn.

Then Azam remembered that he wasn't part of the resistance, she wanted to look inside his mind so bad, but right now... with the droid watching, she would only gie herslef away. She couldn't ask to look at the map either.

"It's okay, he's with the resistance. We'll get you abck with them okay?" 

What Azam really wanted to say was, I'm killing Finn and then you;re giving me the map okay?

Star destroyer

Kylo was near the command room, waiting for news abotu the droid. He was wondering what he'll first do when he had the map.

"Sir..." He turned around to find a young commander looking at him.

"We were unable to acquiere the droid on Jakku" he said taking his cap off.

"It scaped captured aboard a stolen Corellian YT model freighter"

"The droid... stole a freighter" He asked. 

"Not exactly, Sir. It had help. We have no confirmation but we believe FN-2187 may have helped him in he escape" The man was already sweating from the nerves, but he slightly shook when Kylo turned on his lightsaber.

He turned around and destroyed a wall of the ship with many panels, furiously hitting it while thinking why couldn't they do anything right?! Was it so hard to get a damn stupid droid?! really?!

"Anything else?" he sasked trying to calm down.

"The two were accompanied by a girl"

Kylo extended his hand, pulling the man and chocking him.

"What girl?!" he hissed.

Millenium Falcon

Turns out this ship was really some kind of trash, they had been nearly an hour flying out of the system and soemthing broke down.

"Yeah, go get the tools and we'll repair it" Azam said.

"BB-8 can you please check the battery levels?" she asked. What she really wanted was a chance to talk to her guards.

She had to get hurry, she needed her ship now to escape with the droid.

"Have you gotten my ship yet?!" she hissed into her communicator.

"We're near Jakku, miss Palpatine" One guard answered.

"Hurry up! I have it, but I need to get away now. I'm sending you my coordinates and I need you here in twenty minutes max!"

"But miss, the travel from Jakku to-"

"Can't you do a single thing right? Do you want me to tell Palpatine that we lost the map because you didn't hurry?! Come here now or I'm gonna find you and make you suffer!" Azam hung up and sent her coordinates.

Any of her contacts could get her a damn ship soon, but her guards would ahve to be the ones to call.

Finn was the first to come back. She contemplated the idea of knocking him out and then forcing the droid to give her the map, but she still needed a way to get out of here.

So they'll have to fix this flying trash first.

"Tell me Dana, how do you know how to pilot?"

"Well, I lived in Jakku, sometimes I'll practice if I had a chance" she shrugged.

More smoke started coming out of the floor to remind them that this wasn't over.

"I'll fix it" Azam said.

"How do you know how to do so many things?" he asked. Azam took off her robe, there'll be a hell of heat down there. 

She noticed that Finn looked her up and down, even if he tried to disimulate.

She had a black top and black pants, combat boots and red leather bracelets on her right and left upper arms.

"I had to learn. Hey BB-8, or Finn, anyone, can you tell where the base is? I'll drop you there and then I'll go back to Jakku" she said taking off the floor piece she was getting in to fix.

She was testing them both.

Finn, wouldn't know if her suspisions were right and the droid would't tell if it didn't trust her.

Their answer would help her decide if it was worth or not keeping Finn alive and how agressive she would have to be with the BB unit to get the map.

"Pilex driver, hurry" Azam said to Finn. She was listening to their whispers.

"I'm not really witht he resistance, I'm just trying to get away from the First order" she heard Finn say.

"Please tell us, where your base is at and we'll get you there" he whispered again.

Azam smiled.

She had the map and the location to the base. Finally.

Before the droid could answer the lights went out.


	15. 13. Closer

"I saw a flishlight over there" Azam said.

"Here?" Finn said.

"No. To your left"

"No" this man had no clue.

"Do we really need this lamp?!" he asked exasperated.

"I need to fix this or the ship will get filled with poisonous gas!" Azam complained.

BB-8 had a little flashlight.

"Couldn't you do that earlier?!" Finn said.

The droid just ignored him and got closer so Azam could see.

This was weird, she thought for a minute that maybe her ship was here but... it wasn't enough time. They couldn't be.

"I'm done. Let's check the controls." Finn tried offering his hand and bent down, getting a good look inside Azam's shirt. 

She dismissed him and got out on her own, hurrying to check what had happened.

"They've taken control... something's got us" she hissed.

Finn started climbing up his seat, trying to see anything.

"Do you see anything?" she asked.

"Oh no" she could also see it now. A big ship was taking them.

She had no time for this!

"The First Order" Finn whispered.

"How do you know?" 

"What are we gonna do?"

Think Azam, think.

"You and BB-8, hurry, hide there, I'll try to-" they heard a noise and Finn hurried.

"Hey! where are you? I need that ship now!" she hisssed into her communicator.

"We're ten minutes from you miss, Palpatine"

"A ship got us! I'll need you to give me a signal, so I'll escape and get inside the ship. Put the TIE near one of the exits of this thing, tell me and hopefully I'll still have the droid. You idiots!" 

"Dana!" Finn called.

"I'm coming!" 

she looked for her robe and the pocket with small trackers she had.

This weren't the best, the best had stayed back in Jakku with her ship but they was better than nothing.

She'll have to put one on this ship and find a way to hide another either on the droid or the guy, because she feared she wouldn't be able to leave here with that damn map.

Azam found the lamp and illuminated the control panel to find a good place to put the tracker, she decided to hide it under everything, no one would find it unless she told them where to look in.

"Dana!" Finn called, they could hear steps.

"Shut up!" Azam responded and hurried to get inside, she not so accidentally stood too close to him when they put the floor panel back on and hid another tracker on the lower back of his jacket.

The steps were now closer and then they heard a voice.

"Chewie... we're home" 

That wasn't the First Order, Azam tought. She could just end them there and escape then, her thoughts were suddenly interrupted when someone lifted the panel and a Wookie was looking down at them.

Azam had to contain herself not to pull out her saber or use her powers.

"Where are the others? where's the pilot?" A man asked pointing a blaster at them.

They raised ther arms.

"I'm the pilot" Azam answered.

The man gave her a strange look but then nodded.

"Get out of there" 

On the outside she may look a little lost, or afraid, serious, but really she was containing herself not to give ruin everything and blow her cover.

"Where did you find this ship?" The man asked.

"Jakku" Azam and Finn said at the same time.

"Jakku? That junkyard?"

"Thank you!" Finn said and turned to look at Azam like -I told you so-.

"This ship was stolen by pirats" Azam said. She wasn't a hundred percent sure that that was what happened, but it was something common in Jakku.

"Now finally, Han Solo has stolen the Millenium Falcon for good" He said.

Azam's eyes opened in surprise, she had no idea about the Millenium Falcon, and no care. But Han... she knew that name.

Leia's precious husband.

"You're Han Solo..." she repeated.

"I used to be" Han answered and started walking around the ship.

Everyone followed behind him.

"Han Solo the Rebellion General...?" 

He didn't answer but slightly nodded.

Azam tried her best to stay away from the Wookie, there were rumours around the galaxy that they used to eat humans and she didn't trust that thing.

"Hey! someone put a-"

"Compressor on the ignition line. I think we should remove it as it-" Azam interrupted Han only to be joined by him later.

"Puts too much stress on the hyperdrive" They said in unision. She could hear his thoughts and almost smiled when she recognized that he was amazed that a girl knew this things.

"Who are you again?" Han asked.

"I'm Dana, that's my friend BB-8 and that's Finn"

"And you are from Jakku?"

"Only me" 

"You're a little too pale to be from Jakku don't you think?" Han said.

Azam hadn't thought much about it before... since she spent must of her time on Exegol or hidden, the sun wasn't really a big part of her life, and also there was something about the dark side of the force... it marked their users and in her case it made her look somewhat... dead.

"Well, I cover up a lot, years of experience" she answered.

Han nodded.

"Well, we'll drop you at the nearest inhabited planet" 

The Wookie was already taking a seat as the co-pilot.

"Wait! This droid has to get to the Resistance base, we have to help him." 

"He's carrying a map to Luke Skywalker. You knew him right?" Finn said.

Azam could feel Han's emotions changing, pain... memories from his past.

"He... has been gone for a while."

"What happened?" Azam asked.

"They say he was a jedi... the last jedi" Finn said.

Han sighed and went to stang against one of the walls.

"He used to train a new generation of jedi... but one of his students turned against him and since then he dissapeared. He decided to exhile himself. He said it was time for the jedi to die" 

Azam couldn't agree more with him.

"What do you mean a student turned against him?" She asked. Han hesitated and she could feel that he was trying to block something from his mind... something important. Someone. There was hurt in his eyes.

"So... all the stories, he force... is it all true?" Finn asked. The guy looked like someone had just given him a present or something.

"I used to think it wasn't reall at first too..." Han admited. "But... believe it, the force is everywhere and the jedi exist. It is true"

"And... if he wanted to dissapear then why did he left a map?" Azam inquired.

"He must have thought that his help would be needed at some point... little guy, would you show us the map?" Han asked.

BB-8 looked around, Azam knew that he probably didn't trust her or Finn... but apparently he trusted Han enough to do it.

After moving to another place of the room, a big projection filled the place.

Finally!

"It's incomplete" Han observed.

Azam didn't care, this gave her something to work with.

They were all admiring the map, when they heard another ship landing near.

Fuck, Azam thought. She couldn't believe her guards weren't careful, but... they didn't told her anything, which meant that they weren't here.

"Oh perfect!" Han hissed.

First Order ship

The droid hadn't been found and the troops went back to the First Order base with fear and regret, of course this news were told to Snoke, who know held a meeting with General Hux and Kylo Ren.

"The droid will soon be in the hands of the resistance, giving the enemy the means to locate Skywalker... and bring to their cause a must powerful ally. If Skywalker returns, the new Jedi will rise." Snoke told them.

Hux and Kylo could only look up at him.

"Supreme Leader, I take full responsibility-" Hux started.

"General!" Snoke roared. "Your apologies are not a strategy Genreal, we are here now. It is what happens next that matters, our startegy must now change" 

"The weaon, it is ready. I believe the time has come to use it"

"Against?"

"The Republic, or what it's fractious proponents choose to call the Republic. The center of government, it's entire system... in the chaos that would follow, The Resistance will have no choise but to investigate the attack fo such devastating scale, they will throw all their resources into trying to discover it's source so they have no choice but to investigate fully, and in so doing..." Hux started.

"Reveal themselves" Snoke said.

"And if not, we'll have destroyed them" Hux smirked.

"Yes... extreme, I agree that the time for such measures has come"

"Without their friends to protect them the Resistance will be vulnerable and we will stop them before they reach Skywalker"

"Go forsee preparations" 

"Yes, Supreme Leader"

Kylo had stayed silent, pondering the consecuences of this measures and when Hux walked away he turned for a moment to look at him. With a stupid smile like he had won points with Snoke and not him, again.

"I've never had a student with such promise... before you." Snoke said once they were alone.

"It is your teachings that make me strong, Sureme Lader." Kylo Said looking up at him. He wasn't expecting to be complimented at all.

"It is far more than that... it is where you are from, what you are made of. The dark side and the light. The finest sculptor cannot facture a masterpiece from poor materials, he must have something pure, something strong... something unbreakable with which to work. Palpatine had Lord Vader... I have you." Once again, Kylo was nothing on it's own, his power, his strength, his importance... they all came from his family. His past.

"I've given everything I have to you"

"Kylo Ren... I watched the Galactic Empire rise and then fall, the gullible prattle on about the thriump of truth and justice. Of individualism and free will, as if such things were solid and real. The historians have it all wrong, it was neither poor strategy nor arrongace that brought down the Empire, you know too well what did." Kylo could feel Snoke's force incrementing as he got mad thinking about the fall of the Empire.

"Sentiments" He replied. Snoke complained again and again about how weak people in the past had been.

"Yes. Such a simple thing, such a foolish error of judgement. The momentary lapse in an otherwise exemplary life... had Lord Vader not succumbed to emotions at the crutial moment, if the father had killed the son, the Empire would have prevailed. There'll be no threat of Skywalker's return today." 

And you'll have Darth Vader, Kylo tought... and I wouldn't be here.

"By the grace of your training I will not be seduced." He hoped.

"Your self belief is commendable Kylo Ren, but do not let it blind you. No one knows the limits of is own power until it has been tested to the outmost... as yours has not been. Let the time come, there's been an awakening in the force, have you felt it?"

"Yes"

"The elements align kylo ren, you alone are caught in the winds of the storm, your bond is not just to Vader but to Skywaler himself, Leia..." 

As if Kylo was ever allowed to forget it.

"There is no need for concern, together we will destroy the Resistace and the last jedi." 

"Perhaps... it has come to our notice that the droid we seek is aboard the Millenium Falcon, once again in the hands of your father Han Solo. Even you Master of the Knights of Ren have never faced such a test"

"It does not matter, he means nothing to me. My allegiance is with you, no one will stand in our way" He said it like he was a hundred percent sure of it, trying to convince Snoke. Trying to convince himself.

"We shall see, we shall see..." Were Snoke's last words as his hologram faded away.

Kylo took a moment to stand there, to process what was going on and then decided to better retire to his room.

Millenium Falcon

"Come on, the droid will come with us as you hide" Han said tkaing them to another part of the ship.

Apparently he owed money to some people, and they had chosen this moment to come and get it.

Azam could only hope her damn guards were near, she would probably have to leave the droid behind and hope that the cheap trackers she had used were working.

"Why don't we take it with us? You know it has valuable information..." Azam said.

"He'll be fine, now, hide in here and don't come out until I come get you" he instructed.

The wookie and the droid were soon following him away to greet whoever had landed here.

"I... forgot something back there, I won't take long" Azam said once she and Finn were alone.

"No, no, no. It's dangerous. Let me go with you" Finn said. Azam almost rolled eyes. Dangerous...

"It's fine, really, I'll be back in no time" she was slowly sliding the panel where they were hiding under.

"Dana" Finn took her arm, she hated it.

"Finn. Don't worry." 

"If you're so stubborn I'll-" Azam had no time for this, she hit him in the temple causing him to black out and then got out.

"Ready" a voice in her communicator said.

"There's someone getting inside the ship, which side are you on?" she asked.

They could see her location.

"Follow the hallway till the end, turn left and get inside the tunnel, if you go down you'll be near one of the exits and the TIE will be waiting for you" They instructed her.

"Do you know where the droid is?" she asked.

"Miss... if you go get it then you'll be discovered. The droid is with the people and Han Solo" 

Azam cursed and then followed the orders. She couldn't help but wish to stay. She was so close, so close to getting everything she needed.

At leasts he had seen the map and put the trackers, not to mention that she had had Leia's husband just in front of her.

"Fuck!" If the Emperor didn't punish her, she'll do it herself.

She could already see the space, no one was near. She ran to the edge of the landing space and found her TIE waiting for her.

She got in fast, and started flying away.

"Where to, Miss?" The guard that had been piloting the ship before she arrived asked.

"To Exegol"

Little flickers of lightning could be seen inside the ship and Azam had to control herself not to damage it.

The guard that was with her feared for her life. The Emperor wasn't going to be happy... and Azam Palpatine didn't have such a good temper either.

"I was so fucking close!" she suddenly exploded.

"Miss..." Aza, crushed the guards throath with a flick of her hand. Of course killing her wasn't going to help her, but it did relax her a lot.

She cracked her neck and fixed her posture.

"All of you who still remain hear me out, I want one of the ships to follow that thing, the others hurry back to Exegol with me. Be careful no one follows you or you're dead!" she said over the radio.

She had to get there as soon as possible to be able to draw what she remembered of the map and take notes of everything she heard.

First Order

Kylo Ren sat on the edge of his bed as he contemplated Darth Vader's mask.

He sighed and took off his mask.

His mind was a chaos, his destiny seemed to have finally catched up with him and it was coming faster than he expected.

"Forgive me... I feel it again" he said brushing a gloved hand over the mask. "The pull to the light. Supreme Leader senses it" his hand made a fist and he clenched his jaw.

After all this years of training, after his improvement... he could still feel that stupid pull, that stupid part inside of him.

"Show me again the power of the dark side, and I won't let anything stand in our way Grandfather... and I will finish what you started" he said.

It was true that he was more faithfull to Vader than to Snoke, without ever even meeting him... but the stories were more than enough, he admired him, he looked up to him as an example after everything he had done and all he could have done if only he had been a little stronger.

In this case... it was true, he had fallen for sentiment and brought down the Empire with him. Kylo didn't want to make the same mistakes... he wouldn't fall, he couldn't! he couldn't allow himself to fail, because to him there was no other path to follow.

He wouldn't make the same mistake his grandfather did... and when he had the chance, he would kill his parents, not like in Dagobah, this time Kylo hoped and wanted to be strong enough to do it.

He closed his eyes, waiting for his grandfather to remember him how the dark side of the force was the best side, the only side which should keep on existing.


	16. 14. Ahead

"I almost had it! I was so close!" Azam couldn't control herself.

All the way to Exegol and during all the time she had been talking to the Emperor she had been uncapable of not shouting and getting mad, her eyes were shining like never before with pure rage and she had already hurt her lips with her fangs.

Palpatine hadn't said a word, he was only looking at her as she kept talking and talking.

"But I put a tracker on the ship so, I won't lose them... I'm going after them again Emperor, I-"

"Have you finished?" he finally spoke.

Azam stopped pacing and stood tall, she swallowed hard, only now she was aware of the act she had put in front of the Emperor.

"I'm sorry Emperor... I-" she bowed her head and was kneeling on the floor but she felt Palpatine's power not letting her do it.

"You saw the map" he said.

"I did but it was... incomplete" Palpatine waited for her, Azam hadn't talk loud enough and the ever present storm on Exegol had silenced her.

"It was incomplete, my Lord". she repeated.

"Where is the rest of it?" 

Azam bit the inside of her mouth until she tasted her blood, her answer was the thing she hated the most.

"I don't know but-"

"Then go."

"Emperor" Azam took off her hood and stepped forward.

"You said you put trackers on them, if the map is not complete their probably going for the rest of it, go follow them" Contrary to what Azam had expected, Palpatine was very calm while speaking.

Why wasn't he more worried or mad?

This didn't feel right.

"I'll get ready to go my Lord, I won't come back if I don't have the information, or Skywalker's head." 

This time Palpatine smirked and nodded with pride.

"Very well then, that is the kind of determination I need from a student" 

Just a student... Azam thought a little dissapointed. As if it was mocking her, a lightining illuminated the throne as she walked to her room.

She wanted to rest for at least fifteen minutes and write down everything before going back to the ship.

"Update from the ship" she said into her communicator.

"They haven't moved yet, they're still insie the charger, I'll communicate any changes to you miss." A soldier answered.

She didn't answer, but turned her mic off.

Like always the first thing that greeted her on her bedroom was her mirror, and like every time, she contemplated herself.

She remembered how Han Solo had said that she was too pale to be from Jakku.

Her reflexion wasn't kind to her, she was never kind to herself.

Azam knew she was paler than other men and women she had seen on her missions out, but she wasn't sure how much was too much.

This time she had some blood smeared around her mouth, from her fangs. She opened her mouth only to find them still there.

When she was about to walk away she spotted something else, a new scar, something that wasn't there and didn't really have a reason to be there.

On her chest, near her left collar bone was a scar that was slowly extending, like trying to reach her neck.

The marks of the dark side... it's users had to pay for such power and one way of doing it was with their bodies.

"Whatever... one more" Azam muttered and walked to her desk.

First Order ship

"General Hux, do we have any information about the droid's whereabouts?" Kylo asked storming into the control room.

Thanks to his Grandfather and their talk he was more motivated than ever and ready to work.

"Not yet, but we are finishing the calibration of the weapon to attack"

"I don't want any mistakes, not one person from the Republic can be left alive" Kylo said.

"There won't even be dust left of them, Commander" Hux said with a smug smile.

Kylo walked to stand near the big wall of windows to think.

He could request his knights to search for the droid.

If Han Solo had had it... they were probably going to look for the Resistance to give them the information.

But where was their base now...?

Kylo closed his eyes and took a deep breath, whih was a little hard while wering his mask, trying to reach across the Galaxy and find his mother's or father's energy, anything to locate them and get there.

TIE

"So where are they heading now?"

"I think they're heading to Takodana"

"You think?" Azam was a little more desperate than when they first left Exegol.

"Well... I can't know for sure until they stop but for now it looks liek they're-"

"Send me the live coordinates now and shut up" 

Seconds later the request to connect to the other TIE tracker appeared and when she accepted a big map of the Galaxy unfolded on her monitor.

"Hi there..." she whispered.

Azam couldn't eactly remembered what was in Takodana but she didn't think that that would be the place that the Resistance would use as a base, it was a known place.

After an hour of flying she got closer to the ship, and closer to enter Takodana.

"Is there any security in here?" Azam asked.

"No miss, there are no controls"

"Then we'll do it as always. I'll land somewhere far and hidden, you take care of the rest"

"Do you want any men to go behind you?"

"No. We don't want to grab attention, if I need anyone I'll let you know"

"Yes miss Palpatine"

Even from afar Azam could tell that this planet was just a big jungle, she had already located her place to land, far away from the Millenium Falcon and just perfect to take a good look of everything before moving.

"Look after my ship, if anyone steals a part from it I'll kill you" Azam instructed from her communicator.

Disgusting. She murmured taking a look at the nearest place, there were people around a bonfire, people passing money from hand to hand and other running around.

She laughed a little, this was a place for people like her, but stupid. 

"Traders..." she said. 

This place was probably filled with spies and fugitives.

The kind of place she imagined Han Solo would be familiar with.

"They're heading towards a big construction near tthe center of this town" one of his guards said.

"Who is they?"

"Han Solo, the beast, the droid and a man" 

"Good job, I'll take care"

She could already see the walls of this -big construction-.

"Maz Kanata's castle" she read.

She took off her hood. No one would recognize her, but even for a place filled with suspicious people she would stand out with her hood inside that place.

She could smell the alcohol from the door.

Why the hell did Han Solo needed to take the droid for a drink?

She walked inside the building without making eye contact with anyone, she walked to the abr and ordered a drink as she discretely looked around for her victims.

A girl with almost no clothes on walked around the place, searchng for clients, calling the attention of people here. That helped Azam to look around without being caught.

"Go away" she said to the girl when she was ready to approach her.

She took a sip for her drink.

"Wait" The girl turned aorund with a big smile and stood in front of Azam.

"Have you seen any Wookies around here?" Azam said leaning forward and whispering on her ear, she also placed a sack of money on her hand.

The girl's cheecks were a little red.

"So?"

"At the back" 

"Now really go away" Azam said, sh turned around to finish her drink and slowly walked closer to the back.

The space etended to give room to some tables, and there she saw them.

There was a big crowd around them and almost everyone was sitting down, if she just walked over there they'll notice her easily.

Azam decided to instead wait for them and spy them from a table on the darkest corner.

First Order ship

"I have eyes on them, they're here in Takodana" a woman's voice said to one of the General's, who didn't wait a second to communicate this news to Kylo Ren.

"Sir, they're on Takodana" 

The tall figure of Kylo Ren turned around, as intimidating as ever.

"Who's your source?"

"It's trust worthy Sir"

"Then take care of the payment. The rest of you, we're going to Takodana!" 

He had to go and talk with Hux, even if he didn't want to. Takodana was near the Republic's planets and the last thing he needed was for General Hux to get carried away by the power of the weapon and blowing up the map.

Or your dad... an accussing voice said at the back of his mind.

An hour after they talk Kylo Ren was standing ready to see the Republic explode, like everyone else on the ship or at the base.

From a distance the light and the heat of the rays that would eliminate them were still powerful, they traveled fast across the galaxy to meet their destin... and then, it happened.

The rays impacted on the planets and they slowly but surely started crumbling into nothing.

Kylo was careful not to sigh, the Republic was their enemy and he had somewhere to be.

Maz's castle, Takodana

"I want four of you at the front doors, the others at the back. The other squad stay near the Millenium Falcon in case any of you fuck up and they manage to get there" Azam said and stood up.

Maybe there were clues about the Resistance here, or anything she could use, so she would take a look around the whole place.

Some people were still outside, concerned after the spectacle.

Azam vould bet that the planets that had been blone up were the Republic, the First Order probably did it to try and get a reaction from the Resistance.

It had been a little extreme, but she didn't care at all, she had something to do.

She went upstairs but there were only bedrooms, and she could hear nasty noises coming out of almost every single one, so she decided to go.

There were some stairs hidden on the left corner so she went there.

The light there was almost gone and her footsteps echoed even when she tried to be as quiet as possible.

Suddenly she heard screams, they were low at first... muffled, but with every step she took they intensified. There were lots of voices clashing one against the other, a little girl screamed at the top of her lungs.

"Rey..." Azam whispered.

She felt like she was in some kind of trance.

No one would get closer to a situation like this but she felt like she had no choice and also... she was almost sure that she was hearing herself scream.

The noises guided her to a room at the end of the hallway, a single ray of light shone above a chest.

In her trance Azam got close to it and felt like she had to open it, like everything had called her to get there.

Slowly she extended her hand to open it and inside she could see some things and on top of them... a lightsaber.

Her hand reached out without permission and touched it.

She inhaled sharply as she felt a rush of images coming to her mind.

She heard the screams again... and saw herself as a kid in Jakku.

"No! Don't go!" She shouted as the man she had been sold to dragged her away.

Rey...

Then the vision changed again, this time she was somewhere open, in the night, she stumbled and kept walking until she found herself in a forest. There was a weird breathing noise that seemed to come from everywhere.

She fell again and landed somewhere with rain. Someone's head fell to the ground next to her.

She rolled away and screamed in fear, only for a red lightsaber to appear in front of her face.

She reached for her own but couldn't find it.

Everything changed again and she almost sighed in relief.

"Grandfather" she ran to the throne room, extending her arms, only to get there and find a younger version of herself being hit with lightning by Palpatine.

The damn rain was back again and this time she saw a crowd of people reunited in a circle, no one reacted... but Kylo Ren.

Who turned to look at her and swung his lightsaber at her.

She backed away afraid and found herself on the weird room of the castle again.

That last vision... it had felt so real, more like a memory, more like the present...

Azam wanted to sit on the floor and wrap her arms around her knees, cry for a moment and then get up.

What the hell had just happened?

She threw the lightsaber back into the box.

"Who are you?" She heard a voice behind her and jumped a little.

"What is that? What the hell was that?" She asked instead.

There was a weird short woman standing in front of her.

Maz Kanata.

She stepped forward and Azam took a step back.

Maz could see that the girl had been affected by whatever she saw.

"It called you" Maz said.

"Look, I'm sorry if that thing is yours, I'm already going away." Azam tried to walk past her but the lady grabbed her hand.

Azam tried taking her hand away but the woman was strong.

With her free hand she adjusted her glasses and took a good look at Azam.

The woman shook her head.

"Let me go"

"I see in your eyes... you already know the thruth"

"What are you talking about?" She hissed.

"Whoever you're waiting for... they're not coming back. Whatever recognition you crave... the person you want if from won't give it to you"

"I don't know what you're talking about" she yanked her hand away and the old lady gave her an even more pityful look, which Azam hated.

"There's someone that might understand-"

"I don't care" Azam turned around and started walking away, but sadly could still her her voice.

"The belonging you seek is not behind you, it is ahead"

Azam almost tripped on the stairs from how dizzy she felt.

"Miss, the First Order is here" someone informed her.

"What the hell are they doing here?!"

"Someone most have told them they saw the droid"

"Don't let them get in, I haven't picked up our friend yet"

"But miss..."

"Shut up and move!"

Everyone knew by now that the First Order was here and chaos started reigning inside the bar.

Everyone was running around trying to find an exit, and not that far Azam spotted the droid.

"Miss... we're sorry, the troopers are going in."

"Fine, the droid is going to the back exit on the left, get them"

"What about you Miss? Do you need help getting out?"

"I only need you to get the fucking droid!" Azam hissed into her comunnicator.

The troopers were already taking people into questioning, so Azam had to find another way out.

She knew that they hadn't reached upstairs yet and she saw a tree near one of the windows earlier.

She ran up fast and to the end of the hallway, the window was stucked a little but she broke it with a kick.

Her dissiness wasn't helping her at all but she could hear the troopers footsteps getting closer.

"Fuck me..." she muttered as she tried to steady herself and then jump.

She landed not so well on one of the branches and had to climb down to run deep into the forest and away from here.

Azam had to get somewhere high to see what was going on but without being seen by anyone else.

Her troopers could blend with the First Order ones.

Why did they had to be here?! She was so close again.

Azam limped a little as she hurt herself from the fall, but anyways she kept walking deeper into the woods.

She had to stop for a second to take air, what the hell had happened to her on that room?

There was nothing she hated more than feeling weak.

The sounds of blasters and screams reminded her of her mission, until she heard something else.

Her hand went to her lightsaber at the same time that someone else activated their own.

That breathing... suddenly she wasn't sure if she ever got out if those visions...

Wheter she did or not, he was coming.


	17. 15. Strong minds

She started walking backwards keeping one hand on the rocks near her to balance, this wasn't the best place to be in in case she had to fight, but with her head and her limp this was the best.

The sounds were getting closer and in a turn she finally encountered him.

Azam reacted just in time to cover her face and stop his lightsaber.

"Kylo Ren..." she murmured.

The tall masked figure didn't say a thing, instead he charged against her and she ran.

Her foot would have to wait.

They fought up hill until Azam's foot bent and she slid down a little.

Kylo took advantage and extended his hand forward, stopping her with the force.

Azam was grateful that her hood was on when he pulled her close.

Kylo was as curious as he was mad at this girl.

She kept crossing his path, he wanted to know why.

Who she was... who she worked for... why did he feel the force within her.

Kylo tried to look into her mind but was not so surprised to find it impossible.

"The girl I've heard so much about" he said.

She tried breaking free, only one of her arms had loosened up, but she would wait for the perfect moment to attack.

Kylo circled her.

The hood kept him from looking at her face, but he could see that her eyes glowed a little and she was pale.  
He wasn't sure if that was what she looked like when they first met years ago.

"The droid, where is it?" He said putting the lightsaber near her neck.

Azam broke free and activated her lightsaber swinging at Kylo's legs but he avoided her.

They now stood one in front of another.

Kylo tried searching again inside her mind.

"I thought you wanted me" Azam said trying to distract him, she could feel his energy trying to pull at her mind, so she took it and did the same.

Not to her surprise his mind was also hard to manipulate.

She tried physically attacking, but she was tired.

Her technique wasn't the best in this moment.

She felt weaker and weaker with every step and Kylo managed to get to her.

"The map... you've seen it" he said with surprise.

Azam grunted and tried charging at him with the energy she had left but Kylo blocked her.

"Sir, Resistance fighters are coming, we need more troops" a voice said interrupting them.

"Pull the division out, forget the droid. We have what we need" The girl was tired, so this time Kylo was able to put her to sleep.

He caught her and swooped her up in his arms, carrying her to the ship.

"Miss... the droid is escaping, the First Order troop-" Kylo heard the voices on Azam's communicator and ripped off that thing.

Whoever this girl was, she had come with companion. They didn't need to know where she was and she shouldn't be allowed to reach them either.

Kylo got fast to the ship and hurried the troopers that were just standing there looking at him as he carried the girl inside.

For a second he could feel Han Solo's presence, and it only made him mad.

"Let's go!" He shouted at them.

"Sir... where are we to take the-"

"I'm taking her to the interrogation room, you worry about going back to the base" Kylo ordered.

"Yes sir" the trooper said and walked away.

On his way to the interrogation room Kylo was interrupted by a message from Hux.

"I've been told that you abandoned the droid"

"I got the girl" was his answer.

"What girl?" Hux asked. Kylo could imagine how he was pursing his lips.

"The girl that was with the droid, she's seen the map. We'll soon be at the base" Kylo said ending the conversation.

The girl's head hung back and Kylo could see that she had a scar near her collar bones.

Once in the room he tied her to the interrogation chair and waited for her to be awake.

It shouldn't be long, the pain from her foot should wake her up.

Kylo tried to resist but he pulled her hood back and admired her.

"Who are you...?" He whispered contemplating her.

After all those years he hadn't seen her again, not even once, and somehow... he felt like he knew her.

She looked older this time and he noticed that even while she slept her face wasn't relaxed, almost like it rested in a constant angry face.

The girl started moving a little and murmured something while waking up.

She blinked and looked down at her body, probably wondering why she couldn't move.

Kylo was crouched in front of her, not seen yet.

She noticed him and Azam's face got serious, pushing back her confusion and fear.

Kylo tilted his head waiting for the question she was probably going to ask.

"Where am I?" Azam asked much to her dislike.

"You're my guest" the man on the mask said.

Azam snickered. His guest... bullshit.

She noticed then that her communicator was gone and held herself back from cursing out loud.

"You wanna kill me" Kylo stated. He didn't even had to read her mind he know that she wanted to.

"I don't kill cowards in masks" was her reply.

Mask or no mask Azam was in disadvantage and they both knew it, but Kylo felt like her words were some type of dare, so he took the mask off and stood up.

Azam's mouth relaxed a little in surprise and her brows furrowed. She had never seen his face so close... or with such clarity and she felt a strange sense of familiarity.

Kylo took once step close.

"Whoever you were talking to doesn't know where you are, and you've probably already noticed that your communicator is gone" he said.

Azam didn't respond, but her dark emotions were very clear, easy to read and Kylo could feel her anger slowly filling the room.

"Tell me about the droid" he said taking another step.

"He's okay, doesn't trust in strangers, very loyal and if you ask me Han Solo has probably already got it to the Resistance" Kylo looked at her with fatigue.

"What? Is it important to you? I was going to get it... but you see, I'm here" Azam said making the shackles all over her body clinck.

"Stop playing around!" Kylo exploded and screamed near her face.

Azam smiled.

"Hes carrying a section of a navigation chart-" she said, testing to see what kylo wanted with it.

"And we have the rest, recovered from the archives of the Empire but we need the last piece" He started circling her and then stopped behind her, talking to her ear.

"Somehow you convinced the droid to show it to you. You, a nobody" He wanted her to correct him, to tell who she really was. Who she was working with. But again, she stood silent.

Tired of it Kylo stood in front of her, looked at his hand and then to her, he would erase that stupid smile from her face.

"You know I can take whatever I want" He said extending his hand.

"Really?" As she asked that her eyes got back the golden shine from earlier, the shine Kylo knew only someone with a strong connection to the dark side had.

Azam was feeding on the pain from her foot, Kylo's anger and her own fear from not knowing what she'll do.

Kylo's first tries were obsolet. Her mind seemed to be carefully guarded behind closed doors, with tons and tons of protections, he couldn't even feel her thoughts. Nothing.

Their foreheads were covered in sweat, Kylo's from trying and her's from resisting.

"Stop it! Just give me the map! Either you are with the First order or you are with them, and we are not kind to the enemies" Kylo said.

"Has it ever ocurred to you that I haven't seen the map?" Azam asked.

To that Kylo came to her and tightly grabbed her chin.

"I know you've seen the map, it's in there, and now you'll give it to me!" He roared in her face.

"I'm not giving you anything!"

"We'll see" he let go of her and walked to the door, he wanted to take a moment, tell his troopers to torture her, something... but leaving her alone was not the best idea.

He'll have to take the information one way or another.

Azam watched as he stood by the door, if he left her alone she'll find the way to break out of that thing and one way or another she'll scape.

-I'm not with you and I'm not with them- Azam thought.

Anyways no one could know who she really served.

And she wouldn't tell, no matter what.

She got lost in her thoughts when suddenly, Kylo walked fast towards her and stomped on her injured foot.

She couldn't stop the cry that came out her mouth, she tried breaking free but found the shackles and belts even stronger than before.

"I'm gonna make you talk, one way or another"

"You can go ahead, because I'm not talking" she lifted her chin and stood tall, even on that thing.

Kylo didn't find a special satisfaction in torture, at least not the physical one.

He was used to being able to just take whatever he wanted, but with this girl... he'll have to get his hands dirty.

"Who are you?" He asked pulling out his saber and spinning it on his hand.

Azam alternated her gaze from the lightsaber to him, and to his surprise, she laughed.

"Am I supposed to be afraid of that? Or of you? Come on, you can do whatever you want with me, I won't tell you shit." She tried getting her face close to Kylo's, hoping that her fangs were showing.

Withouth a word Kylo leaned on her foot again and slowly rose the lightsaber to her face.

This time Azam was more careful not to make a sound, only pursing her lips.

She took a deep inhale and exposed her neck even more.

"Come on, if you fucking dare" she said.

Kylo exploded and hit her temple to knock her out.

Why couldn't he hurt her? Really hurt her.

Back then when he changed his name and started travelling around the Galaxy with his knights he had done terrible things.

Slayed tons of people and gained respect.

How many people had had to pay for him to be where he was now?

How many people had payed for his bad temper or because Snoke never treated him well?

Then why... did he feel so bad thinking about seriously hurting her?

He stepped out of the room, he'll have to get something.

"Don't come in, only if you hear something and shoot at anything suspiscious!" Kylo told the troopers guarding outside.

He couldn't risk anyone entering and breaking her free.

Kylo walked furiously to his room to take a medicine that would make her... weak.

On his way out he felt the call from his grandfather's mask.

"I'm gonna make you proud, Grandfather. I won't fail again" Kylo said resting his hand on top of it.

-I can do this- he reasured himself and then got out.

Leaving her alone for a long time could be dangerous.

"It's been quiet, Sir". The troopers said once they saw he came back.

Inside, Azam was still knocked and her head bleeded from the injury.

Kylo took out the medicines he'd brought and a syringe.

In a small dozis this would only sedate her a little, allowing him to break through her mind.

If he had more time Kylo would have loved to take her to Snoke or lock her in a cell for days without food or water until she talked... but this war didn't have time for anyone.

The Rebels must have the map by now, and Luke skywalker couldn't return to them!

Azam complained a little when she felt the needle entering her skin and Kylo shook her face to wake her up.

Her eyes were heavy and her foot and head throbed in pain.

"I think you're going to speak now" Kylo said.

Had Azam mentioned that she found him attractive? He had nice hair and was tall, she thought.

"I'm not" she whispered.

"You will" he extended his palm to her, and this time he could feelt it.

Azam hit her head back, bitting on her lips, trying to resist the pain of Kylo's power intruding her mind.

"What did you do to me?" She moaned in pain.

Instead of answering Kylo put a little more preassure on his attack.

She let out a scream, feeling the intromission on her mind, if she couldn't keep him out then she'll give him something else.

She reminded herself to be strong. Kylo had told her where the rest of the map was... actually he had seen it, so if she focused maybe she would be the one to obtain the full map.

"You can think about stupid things all you like, I'm gonna find it" Kylo said.

He wasn't angry anymore, being able to break through her was a good start.

"So lonely... so afraid, I see the days you cried yourself to sleep. I see the sand... I feel your need to be recognized" Kylo said starting to dig into her mind.

Azam was afraid that somehow he'll find out about the Emperor, so she put her own mind to work.

It was easy to get in since he was only focused on her.

He watched as her tired face grew into a smile.

"You're afraid... that you'll never be as strong as Darth Vader" she said looking him straight in the eye.

Kylo walked back some steps and stopped the connection between their minds, not only because he hated what she had said, but because he could feel her looking around.

"You thought that with drugs I was gonna give you what you want?" She snickered.

Some drops of blood from her head were already drying on her cheek while others trailed down the side of her face.

"Now that I know you've seen the rest of the map, I'll make sure that you're the one giving it to me" she said with a grin.

"You're weak. You can try all you want, but I'm not the one who's tied and alone" Kylo spat.

"I found something interesting, something that has you very worried... why are you so afraid of killing your father? I almost did you the favor hours ago-" she started attacking him until Kylo took her face on his hands and pressed.

"Shut up!"

Azam laughed as she could, trying to focus on his face.

He had poor emotion control, and she could use that to her advantage.

"You are not man enough to do it. That's why you'll never be as powerful a-s Darth... Vader" as she spoke Kylo pressed harder on her face.

"Who the hell are you working for?! Huh? How much is the Resistance paying you for this?!" He screamed.

"I'm alone, as you said. Your daddy didn't pay me to be here." She paused to wait for his reaction.

Not a single word, but she could feel it all.

Guilt. Fear. Shame.

All those feelings attached to his father.

She remembered when she could still feel those things, but she got strong, became a Sith. Powerful. And she had more determination now.

"Hit me, come on. Practice a little, if you're not able to hit me you'll never be able to kill him... and you know, you're giving me more information rig-"

He didn't hit her, but force chocked her to shut her up.

"You're going to surrender. You'll wish you'd spoken to me, someone else is getting the information out of you" he looked at her face, straight in the eye and then continued looking down her body.

He came close to her only to whisper before he left.

"You're not gonna like it" and started walking out of the room.

"Right, go get someone who actually dares to do something. You should give up the First Order and this life because you're a coward!" She screamed until the doors closed .

Being honest she just wanted to sleep but she had to figure a way to get out of there.

She hated that she'll have to do it in such deplorable conditions.


End file.
